Seriously, Ami, Plane, Why can't something go faster than the speed of light?

[Brassmask]

That just sounds like an arbitrary rigid assumption.

It just seems to me that since we know how fast it goes, if we figured out a power source or device that could propel us that there'd be no reason that we couldn't go faster than the speed of light.  It seems to me that it'd be dark around our conveyance but that's about it.  The lights on the conveyance wouldn't be affected by our going faster than light because it would be travelling along with us.

I know that we don't have that kind of power but why is it that light cannot be exceeded?

[Amianthus]

That just sounds like an arbitrary rigid assumption.

Yeah, it is arbitrary.

Good thing that it's not true.

(Yet another example of the general populace misinterpreting science.)

For more information, google Cherenkov radiation and quantum tunneling.

[Amianthus]

I know that we don't have that kind of power but why is it that light cannot be exceeded?

The simple answer to the problem that you have posted is that the work of Lorentz, Fitzgerald and others have shown that as velocity increases, the mass also increases, the length contracts, and time slows down. Since you have to put more energy into increasing the acceleration at an ever increasing rate, and since mass approaches infinity at the speed of light, you are required to put an infinite amount of energy into accelerating the object. So, accelerating past the speed of light in not possible in our universe.

[Brassmask]

I know that we don't have that kind of power but why is it that light cannot be exceeded?

The simple answer to the problem that you have posted is that the work of Lorentz, Fitzgerald and others have shown that as velocity increases, the mass also increases, the length contracts, and time slows down. Since you have to put more energy into increasing the acceleration at an ever increasing rate, and since mass approaches infinity at the speed of light, you are required to put an infinite amount of energy into accelerating the object. So, accelerating past the speed of light in not possible in our universe.

So, then how can light go as fast as it does?  Shouldn't light that left the sun and travelled to the earth be ultraheavy, so to speak?

[kimba1]

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/generalscience/faster_than_c_000719.html

this might help or make it worst here

[Amianthus]

So, then how can light go as fast as it does?  Shouldn't light that left the sun and travelled to the earth be ultraheavy, so to speak?

Photons have no rest mass. Zero times infinite is still zero.

[Lanya]

Length contracts? 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light

Oh well. I don't understand why but it's interesting to read about.  Especially the part about the colors you'd see at the opposite ends of the tunnels. 

[Plane]

In space you could accellerate forever .

But as you gain speed it requires greater power to accellerate further.

As you get close to the speed of light ,the power requirement becomes rediculous.

At the speed of light the power requirement for further accelleration is infinate.

This is the effect of "increased mass".

Also as one gains speed the passage of time is affected at the speed of light time would not pass any more.


On the other hand there are Tackyons

http://www.gallup.unm.edu/~smarandache/Russo-faster-than-light.pdf

And warp drive , which would move the rest of the universe without accellerateing you so much.

[Plane]

http://www.advancedphysics.org/forum/showthread.php?t=505&page=2



If light is moveing in a vacuum it moves at its maximum speed , it is slower in water and can be slowed to rediculous amounts by a Bose-Einstein condensate .


http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/1999/02.18/light.html


But is a slow moveing thing still light?

[Amianthus]

and can be slowed to rediculous amounts by a Bose-Einstein condensate .

Actually, last year they "froze" a beam of light in a Boze-Einstein condensate. Looked pretty cool.

[Plane]

Good exposition in Wicipedia.....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light

[edit] Constant velocity from all reference frames
It is important to realise that the speed of light is not a "speed limit" in the conventional sense. An observer chasing a beam of light will measure it moving away from him at the same speed as will a stationary observer. This leads to some unusual consequences for velocities.

Most individuals are accustomed to the addition rule of velocities: if two cars approach each other from opposite directions, each travelling at a speed of 50 km/h, one expects that each car will perceive the other as approaching at a combined speed of 50 + 50 = 100 km/h to a very high degree of accuracy.

At velocities at or approaching the speed of light, however, it becomes clear from experimental results that this rule does not apply. Two spaceships approaching each other, each travelling at 90% the speed of light relative to some third observer between them, do not perceive each other as approaching at 90% + 90% = 180% the speed of light; instead they each perceive the other as approaching at slightly less than 99.5% the speed of light.

[Lanya]

and can be slowed to rediculous amounts by a Bose-Einstein condensate .

Actually, last year they "froze" a beam of light in a Boze-Einstein condensate. Looked pretty cool.

Is that why star light takes so long to get here?  or is it even a factor?

[Amianthus]

Is that why star light takes so long to get here?  or is it even a factor?

No; that's purely because of the distance. It takes 8 minutes for light from the Sun to reach the Earth.

[Plane]

Is that why star light takes so long to get here?  or is it even a factor?

No; that's purely because of the distance. It takes 8 minutes for light from the Sun to reach the Earth.

I wonder if there could be any naturally occuring Bose-einstien condensed regions of space?


They would transmit light at some rediculously low speed and the light emergeing would be a record of anchient scenes on the other side.

[Amianthus]

I wonder if there could be any naturally occuring Bose-einstien condensed regions of space?

They would transmit light at some rediculously low speed and the light emergeing would be a record of anchient scenes on the other side.

It would be interesting, but I think it's not predicted by current theory.