So is it possible to go > the speed of light + will we ever get anywere in universe?

Hurricane Harold said:
I don't know if that applies to this topic though. I mean, would we have more physicists working on the idea if we funded it more?

In any case, I agree. If a quarter of the world's military budget was redirected to science and space exploration and such we'd all be far better off.
Click to expand...
How about no. The last thing we need to do is waste more money. (We have way too many current problems.)

As for the topic at hand...
We're never leaving this planet, and even if we can manage to get to Mars or something, we're never leaving this galaxy. Do you guys know how far the nearest galaxy is away? Traveling even at the speed of light wouldn't be an answer.

*EDIT*
Apparently our mass increases as speed increases, where the speed of light being the point of requiring infinite amount of energy/force to attain speeds as fast as light, therefore "impossible." I don't understand why the mass increases as the speed increases. I also thought they scientists already got particles (which have mass) to travel at the speed of light, which would mean by the previous statement, that they had "infinite force/energy," which I thought was "impossible." I'm very confused about this. I don't like not understanding something. :(
*END EDIT*

Why is everyone pretending that we can't possibly travel at the speed of light? Do you know how fast our current shuttles (which if I recall correctly are getting replaced soon with better ones) go? Speed of light isn't exactly impossible to achieve, it'll just take new technology and time. I don't know what happens if you go faster than it though.

Besides, even if we could go 10 times the speed of light, we'd never be able to travel anywhere like that. Think about the ridiculously insane amount of damage the vessel would take from a small object in space when you're traveling faster than the speed of light. And it's not like you could "plan" you path out like they do in sci-fi shows, because I doubt you could detect very small objects from that far away. This is all pure speculation of course.
 
Last edited:
confidential said:
haha john titor. forgot all about that

weren't we supposed to be in all out civil war by now
Click to expand...

Spoiler
 
Validuz said:
And why is everyone pretending that we can't travel at the speed of light? Do you know how fast our current shuttles (which if I recall correctly are getting replaced soon with better ones) go after they slingshot around?

Speed of light isn't exactly impossible to achieve. I don't know what happens if you go faster than it though.
Click to expand...

:lol:

escape velocity is something like 11,000 m/s

1/10th the speed of light is 30,000,000 m/s

the new particle collider is going to be accelerating particles at something like 99.9991% the speed of light though, but they're elementary particles like protons and electrons
 
Validuz said:
How about no. The last thing we need to do is waste more money.

As for the topic at hand...
We're never leaving this planet, and even if we can manage to get to Mars or something, we're never leaving this galaxy. Do you guys know how far the nearest galaxy is away?

And why is everyone pretending that we can't travel at the speed of light? Do you know how fast our current shuttles (which if I recall correctly are getting replaced soon with better ones) go after they slingshot around? Speed of light isn't exactly impossible to achieve. I don't know what happens if you go faster than it though.

Besides, even if we could go 10 times the speed of light... we'd NEVER be able to travel anywhere like that. Think about the ridiculously insane amount of damage the vessel would take from a small object in space when you're traveling faster than the speed of light.
Click to expand...

fastest a space ship has been thus for wasn't a shuttle, although it was slingshot action was 39,897 kph (24,791 mph). That is alot slower than 1,079,252,848 kph (670,616,629 mph).
 
Last edited:
and why does everyone say it is possible to go past the speed of light?

did i miss some physics breakthrough?
 
they watched TV (sci fi stuff), then one day they read something on the internets (they read it!!! they must have fully understood it) about a laser pulse going through cesium vapor at light speed. And as we all know space is full of cesium, and people and their ships are alot like lasers. So it must all be done. No more problems. And they immediatly thought "well i guess we will have the enterprise inside 18 months... i hope they do the holodeck that would be so cool!"
 
A super volcano or some other mega-disaster will wipe the human race off the earth before we can develop to that point...
 
Validuz said:
And why is everyone pretending that we can't possibly travel at the speed of light? Do you know how fast our current shuttles (which if I recall correctly are getting replaced soon with better ones) go after they slingshot around? Speed of light isn't exactly impossible to achieve, it'll just take some new technology and some time. I don't know what happens if you go faster than it though.
Click to expand...

You are missing some important physics.

The problem is, when an object approaches the speed of light, normal rules of physics start to break down. The effective mass of an object increases the faster it goes. Since a force is needed to accelerate a mass, as the mass increases, the force necessary to accelerate it keeps increasing. Thus it becomes absolutely impossible to ever break the speed of light. Reaching the speed of light would require infinite force, and make the object that was moving at light speed have infinite mass. Breaking the speed of light would do more damage to the cosmos than dividing by zero.
 
Beren said:
fastest a space ship has been thus for wasn't a shuttle, although it was slingshot action was 39,897 kph (24,791 mph). That is alot slower than 1,079,252,848 kph (670,616,629 mph).
Click to expand...
New Horizon was up to ~59,000 kph.

I'm just saying, I think it's possible... eventually. We're obviously no where near it now, but I'm sure no one thought 30 years ago that we'd be where we are today.
 
CarpeIppon said:
You are missing some important physics.

The problem is, when an object approaches the speed of light, normal rules of physics start to break down. The effective mass of an object increases the faster it goes. Since a force is needed to accelerate a mass, as the mass increases, the force necessary to accelerate it keeps increasing. Thus it becomes absolutely impossible to ever break the speed of light. Reaching the speed of light would require infinite force, and make the object that was moving at light speed have infinite mass. Breaking the speed of light would do more damage to the cosmos than dividing by zero.
Click to expand...
Hmm, well, I'm not a physicist. Thanks for the correction/info though. :p
 
yeah mine were manned speeds. But seriously dude, that is totally a piss in the ocean compared to the speed of light. Read CarpeIppon's post a few times... until you understand. Its really not that hard to grasp.
 
I've been up all night, but I have one question regarding that, which could be really stupid/ignorant of me... but here goes: Why does the mass increase as the speed increases?

Let me clarify... ignoring current technology, why is it impossible to reach the speed of light. I mean, if the mass does increase as the speed increases, what does light have to do with it? How is light affecting the mass of the object?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top