To infinity and beyond!?

Viscur · Post by **Viscur** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 5:47 am

But why does he bind the universal speed limit to the speed of light instead of any other crazy high constant?

Tbh, it always confused me that light was some kind of massless energy that somehow defined possibilities of something that it doesn't share the same properties.

juckto · Post by **juckto** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 5:56 am

That didn't help MrC.

"You can't travel faster than the speed of light because you need an infinite amount of energy to accelerate your mass to the speed of light. This can be proven using a theory that assumes you can't travel faster the speed of light."

MrChaos · Post by **MrChaos** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 6:08 am

juckto wrote:QUOTE (juckto @ Sep 28 2011, 11:56 PM) That didn't help MrC.

"You can't travel faster than the speed of light because you need an infinite amount of energy to accelerate your mass to the speed of light. This can be proven using a theory that assumes you can't travel faster the speed of light."

*blink blink blink* Well that is what happens when you plug in the numbers to the equation... Im all out of thoughts then, best of luck in your search for enlightment on the subject

Makida · Post by **Makida** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 2:31 pm

It should be noted relativity has been confirmed experimentally numerous times, and GPS satellites use it to function, IIRC. So there's more going for the theory than circular logic.

I think this is one of those questions that just can't be answered easily, really. The speed of light is just the fastest that information can propagate in our universe. If information could travel faster, you'd end up with causality violation, which we have to assume is impossible because if you can have effects preceding their own causes, your ability to reason logically about the universe goes out the window.

I had a couple of websites that explained it more-or-less nicely, but I can't find the links just now. Basically, IIRC, the passage of time is relative; without the speed of light limit, this alone would be enough to allow for violations of causality. The speed limit on how fast information can propagate through the universe is the only thing that lets the world make sense.

Edit: This is one of the sites I was remembering. It's pretty long, and it's been ages since I read it, but as I recall it's pretty interesting.

HSharp · Post by **HSharp** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 5:09 pm

girlyboy wrote:QUOTE (girlyboy @ Sep 29 2011, 03:31 PM) It should be noted relativity has been confirmed experimentally numerous times, and GPS satellites use it to function, IIRC. So there's more going for the theory than circular logic.

I think this is one of those questions that just can't be answered easily, really. The speed of light is just the fastest that information can propagate in our universe. If information could travel faster, you'd end up with causality violation, which we have to assume is impossible because if you can have effects preceding their own causes, your ability to reason logically about the universe goes out the window.

I had a couple of websites that explained it more-or-less nicely, but I can't find the links just now. Basically, IIRC, the passage of time is relative; without the speed of light limit, this alone would be enough to allow for violations of causality. The speed limit on how fast information can propagate through the universe is the only thing that lets the world make sense.

Edit: This is one of the sites I was remembering. It's pretty long, and it's been ages since I read it, but as I recall it's pretty interesting.

I reject your hypothesis and replace it with my own.

Whether it is possible for objects to travel faster then light or not I don't think it will lead to being able to travel or send messages back in time, mainly because we have not seen any evidence of it, now travelling to the future might indeed be a possibility.

HJ_KG · Post by **HJ_KG** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 5:29 pm

Post by **BackTrak** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 6:41 pm

Why does moving faster than a photon dictate time travel? What if moving faster than light just means you are going to get there quicker. When you stop moving faster than light, you'll just reflect light normally and pop, there you are! Suprising MrC in his bath. Would there be a big wave of light when you stopped moving as all the little photons slosh out of your way? That would look even better than blacklit tide and glowsticks.

If I turn off all the lights and walk to the other side of the room am I some kind of pioneer?

Just because it was a one person race, does it make me any less of a winner?

Do you need to have whales on board behind the transparent aluminum to pull off FTL correctly?

Anyway, all of this is moot until we learn to find the edge of the flat earth, fly, go faster than the speed of sound...

Er, I guess we already did those other "Impossible" missions. Huh... whaddayaknow?

Terran · Post by **Terran** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 9:29 pm

Juckto,

"The speed of light in a vacuum is measured to be the same by all observers in inertial frames. So, if I shine a beam of light, and measure how fast it's going, and then start moving really fast, and then measure the speed of the light beam again, both measurements will produce the same result."
-wikipedia

Bunch of relativity equations branch off of this logic, which are proven to be accurate by observable evidence.

Basically, if you travel at the speed of light, Einstein says time stops for you (i.e. you travel infinitely fast) although for everyone else you still travel at the speed of c.

You can go take a look at the equations and make your head explode by trying to understand what happens when v > c if you wish at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_relativistic_equations

Hope that halps...

germloucks · Post by **germloucks** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 10:22 pm

Its possible the neutrinos were briefly passing through a higher dimension.

Heyoka · Post by **Heyoka** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 10:24 pm

germloucks wrote:QUOTE (germloucks @ Sep 29 2011, 06:22 PM) Its possible the neutrinos were briefly passing through a higher dimension.

Heyoka wrote:QUOTE (Heyoka @ Sep 28 2011, 09:03 PM) I think if a particle travels faster than light, it effectively stops existing in this dimension. Thus, it may be that instead of smashing against the asteroid it just goes around. All while moving in a perfectly straight line.

Like travelling on the other side of space-time.