Speed of light? Time?

[Caoimhin]

I heard that if you travel faster in space, you travel slowe in time and when you would travel at the speed of light the time would not change for you. So how is it possible to travel faster than the speed of light? Wouldn't that mean you are travelling backwards in time? I don't get it..

 

[mthrnite]

I'll give it a try and get back to you with the results... in about 500 years... Stay healthy!

 

[Sil3n7]

 

[Veho]

Yes, in theory, if you traveled faster than light, you'd go back in time. But that's only one of the theories. The prevailing one says that it's very much impossible for a corporeal object to achieve the speed of light, much less go over it. And that's why they are looking into teleportation.

 

[dreary79]

You cannot stop time, and you cannot go backwards in time. It's not possible and it will never be possible, but that's just my opinion.

Some people believe that if someone was to travel at the speed of light that they would become light. But wouldn't that also imply that if someone was to travel the speed of sound that they would become sound?

Lets say that today we could travel at the speed of light and we wanted to go planet searching in the Alpha Centauri system. It would take us 4.37 light years light years to get there, because time doesn't stop.

But I'm not even sure about light speed travel being possible. IMO its probably impossible.

 

[lagman]

If you traveled faster than light, you´ll get this:

 

[Jiggah]

I heard that if you travel faster in space, you travel slowe in time and when you would travel at the speed of light the time would not change for you. So how is it possible to travel faster than the speed of light? Wouldn't that mean you are travelling backwards in time? I don't get it..

I think you misunderstood this. They are saying theoretically that if you were traveling almost as fast, it doesn't have to be faster, that time would slow down for you while it moves at a regular pace for everyone else. This is part of the Einstein's Theory of Relativity and is based on reference frames. For a person, moving say near the speed of light, the time in his frame would still be moving at a regular pace and everyone else's time has sped up. This has been proven by the way with test done on airplanes, even though the difference is extremely small that it doesn't really matter.

 

[Caoimhin]

Physics are sooo great. I don't even get it

 

[lagman]

I think you misunderstood this. They are saying theoretically that if you were traveling almost as fast, it doesn't have to be faster, that time would slow down for you while it moves at a regular pace for everyone else. This is part of the Einstein's Theory of Relativity and is based on reference frames. For a person, moving say near the speed of light, the time in his frame would still be moving at a regular pace and everyone else's time has sped up. This has been proven by the way with test done on airplanes, even though the difference is extremely small that it doesn't really matter.


And it´s also part of a really cool episode of Batman the Animated Series

Physics are sooo great. I don't even get it

That´s the thing, you don´t need to, all this is mere speculation

 

[Mehdi]

Yes, in theory, if you traveled faster than light, you'd go back in time. But that's only one of the theories. The prevailing one says that it's very much impossible for a corporeal object to achieve the speed of light, much less go over it. And that's why they are looking into teleportation.

not back in time but basically the future. But if you go as fast as light you actually go very slow since even though you only noticed a few minutes to get from point a to point b to others you've been travelling hundreds of years..

 

[- Wrath of God -]

One theory also states that if a corporeal object were to reach the speed of light, it would turn into energy. Also, the theory is if you're moving away from the earth at a high speed (not even the speed of light, maybe half), then time on earth will move faster than it will for you.

 

[mthrnite]

Ok, I'm back...

Where's all da simian women at!

 

[- Wrath of God -]

You cannot stop time, and you cannot go backwards in time. It's not possible and it will never be possible, but that's just my opinion.

Some people believe that if someone was to travel at the speed of light that they would become light. But wouldn't that also imply that if someone was to travel the speed of sound that they would become sound?Â

Lets say that today we could travel at the speed of light and we wanted to go planet searching in the Alpha Centauri system. It would take us 4.37 light years light years to get there, because time doesn't stop.Â

But I'm not even sure about light speed travel being possible. IMO its probably impossible.

The theory is you would become energy - not necessarily light (as stated in my above post), and this is because it's widely believed that the speed of light is the speed limit (so to speak) for all matter and energy.

Light year is not a measurement of time. It is a measurement of distance. 1 light year = the distance light travels in a year. So if you're going the speed of light, it would take you 4.37 years to get to a planet in the Alpha Centauri system.

 

[Azimuth]

I heard that if you travel faster in space, you travel slowe in time and when you would travel at the speed of light the time would not change for you. So how is it possible to travel faster than the speed of light? Wouldn't that mean you are travelling backwards in time? I don't get it..


I think you misunderstood this. They are saying theoretically that if you were traveling almost as fast, it doesn't have to be faster, that time would slow down for you while it moves at a regular pace for everyone else. This is part of the Einstein's Theory of Relativity and is based on reference frames. For a person, moving say near the speed of light, the time in his frame would still be moving at a regular pace and everyone else's time has sped up. This has been proven by the way with test done on airplanes, even though the difference is extremely small that it doesn't really matter.

Also, not only are time measurements different, but length measurements too. Thats all galilean transformations which is a whole other discussion.

There is no such thing as faster than light, just like there is nothing below absolute zero.

 

[Caoimhin]

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

The electrons are travelling faster than light.

 

[Jiggah]

I think they are talking about exceeding the light barrier in the specific medium not the speed of light itself. So, as the example gives the speed of light in water is .75c then when a particle exceeds that speed in that specific medium, which still means it'll never be able to go as fast as light itself.

 

[Caoimhin]

I think they are talking about exceeding the light barrier in the specific medium not the speed of light itself. So, as the example gives the speed of light in water is .75c then when a particle exceeds that speed in that specific medium, which still means it'll never be able to go as fast as light itself.

Oh, right. Sorry then ^^"

 

[Azimuth]

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

The electrons are travelling faster than light.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than-l..._speed_of_light

Last line, first paragraph: Neither of these phenomena violates special relativity or creates problems with causality, and thus neither qualifies as FTL as described here.

For an object to be classified faster than the speed of light, it must not act according to special relativity or casuality, Cherenkov radiation does.

General relativity was developed after special relativity to include concepts like gravity. It maintains the principle that no object can accelerate to the speed of light in the reference frame of any coincident observer. However, it permits distortions in spacetime that allow an object to move faster than light from the point of view of a distant observer.

It gets complicated here, because now we are dealing with space-time continiums, worm holes blah blah blah blah

But there is no solid proof of a particle breaking the speed of light as observed from 2 reference frames, lots of debate on this issue nowadays.

I think they are talking about exceeding the light barrier in the specific medium not the speed of light itself. So, as the example gives the speed of light in water is .75c then when a particle exceeds that speed in that specific medium, which still means it'll never be able to go as fast as light itself.

0.75c is the standard speed i.e a constant, of the speed of light in water. This value is exceeded in cherenkov radiation, meaning that c itself has been exceeded. Its medium independent in theory.

 

[Jiggah]

They aren't saying that the speed of light is superpassed in these situations. They are saying it gives that appearance. For example, if there exists a wormhole from here to Alpha Centauri, it would appear as if you just magically appeared at Alpha Centauri i.e. teleportation. It has to do more with gravity and the bending of space/time than violating the speed of light.

 

[Trace II]

according to Einstein, the speed of light is an interdementional speed limit and if you go faster, you just gain mass. I think it has to do with the whole E=mc^2 thing. Congratulations, you made my head hurt