relativity and speed of light for dummies
- Thread starter mito
- Start date
Because when something hits the speed of light it SHOULD turn to into energy, at least that's way I understand it.
why should it turn into energy?
There are a few properties from special relativity. One important property is an object "looks" heavier when moving. That means it would require more energy to make it moves faster, and when you want an object to move at the speed of light, it would need (in theory) infinite amount of energy, and that's impossible to do so.
Some people considered the possibility about an object which always travels faster than light, because in theory such objects won't hit the "infinite energy" wall. However, there are still many problems with this concept and there's no any evidences.
Some people considered the possibility about an object which always travels faster than light, because in theory such objects won't hit the "infinite energy" wall. However, there are still many problems with this concept and there's no any evidences.
Actually tachyons have to have "imaginary" (squared-negative) mass. It can be deduced from the equation you wrote in the post above. Note that such "tachyons" have many problems. For example, decreasing the energy of a tachyon actually increases its speed. So a charged tachyon, radiating electromagnetic waves if accelerating (suppose it's the same as normal particles), it will accelerate even more and keep radiating and accelerate... to maybe infinite speed. That would be very strange.
.................................
the theory itself is strange enough.
Its more of a postulate ultimately. The reason is experimentally Michaelson and Morley failed to confirm the galilean transform (or the existance of the ether). Einstein then made it a axiom, stating that ever inertial observer measures the same value 'c' for propagating lightfronts. He then goes on to derive the Lorentz transformations from his first principles (the Lorentz transformations had been written down in an adhoc way previously, in order to make the laws of Maxwell invariant under change of frame)
This postulate of course is now so robust experimentally, people don't even think twice about it (its been confirmed, and reconfirmed in hundreds of milllions of experiments)
Mathematically, you can think of it as the most general way to close the Maxwell algebra
This postulate of course is now so robust experimentally, people don't even think twice about it (its been confirmed, and reconfirmed in hundreds of milllions of experiments)
Mathematically, you can think of it as the most general way to close the Maxwell algebra
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pocketmoon66
Newcomer
Just don't travel at speeds higher than the speed of light, better safe than sorry
But would it avoid speeding tickets ! I have so many
But would it avoid speeding tickets ! I have so many
Yes.
Nope, you've already hit some incredibly small object that was in your path and then you died. (We can't just stop, we have to slow down first!)
/What's the matter Colonel Sanders, chicken?
OpenGL guy
Veteran
Even if you managed to acheive light speed, and time stopped for yourself, time would still continue for the rest of the universe. Thus, by the time you reach your destination, things will have changed, perhaps fatally so.
Light has a finite speed. So your journey to the Andromeda galaxy would still take 2.1 million years or so. Of course, the traveller will experience no subjective time, but lots can happen during 2.1 million years! (The galaxy will move for one!)
Light has a finite speed. So your journey to the Andromeda galaxy would still take 2.1 million years or so. Of course, the traveller will experience no subjective time, but lots can happen during 2.1 million years! (The galaxy will move for one!)