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Traveling at the speed of light! (1 Viewer)

physician

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this may sound stupid, but i dont care!..hehe

can we actualy see something traveling at the speed of light?

and do u guys believe it is possible to travel at speeds faster than the speed of light?

I know alot of u guys are prolly sik of phys, but ive been doing some reading on this concept ... time dillation and all

Its just an interesting concept

for example take this as an example:

"One twin sister takes a space trip at a speed close to the speed of light. When she returns thirty years later, the sister who stayed on the earth will be much older compared to the sister who went into space"

or this:

Suppose that there are two twin brothers. One of them stays in this world, the other goes on a space journey during which he travels
almost at the speed of light. When he returns from space, he will find that his twin brother is much older than he is. The reason for this is that the time passed much more slowly for the brother who went on the space trip. The same example can be thought of in relation to a father who went on a space trip in a rocket traveling at nearly 99 percent of the speed of time and his son who remained on this earth. According to Einstein, if the father was 27 years old and his son was three, 30 earth-years later when the father returned to earth, the son would be 33 and the father would be 30 years old.
 
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Raginsheep

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Well, light travels at the speed of light....

As for whether we'll ever be able to travel at that speed, I believe not. However, I believe that we will be able to employ shortcuts such as wormholes.
 

physician

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aha, yes i thought about that hehe.....

what about something traveling faster than the speed of light...as in, greater than 3*108
 

ioniser

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hahahaha you've been reading too much of physics contexts

but as you already can see as you approach the speed of light your mass gains considerably and you can't approach that asymtope



the other theory was that you could fold up space like roll it uplike a newspaper so as to try to travel from A to B.they've already found that the sun bends our spave of the galaxy to some degree but so small and insignificantlike0.000000000000000000000000001241441..............

Yeah and i agree with you if we could travel faster than the speed of light you can't see light(what would there be to see)
 

ioniser

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if travelling faster than speed of light that means we would beable to view the past
 

ioniser

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the future wouldn't have occured yet or unless your talking about travelling in the ship where time would be slower
 

physician

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perhaps have a think about this example

"Because every event is shown to us in a definite series, we think that time always moves forward. For example, a skier always skies down a mountain, not up it. A drop of water does not rise up from a pool, but always falls down into it. In this situation, a skier's position on a mountain is in the past, while his position down the mountain is the future. However, if the information in our memories were to be displayed in reverse, as we would rewind a film, what is for us the future, that is the downhill position, would be the past and the past, that is the uphill position, would be the future."
 

ioniser

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interesting


but that wouldnt really apply to like what my career would be like in the future

example in the future will i be the next einstein lol?
 

physician

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ioniser said:
interesting


but that wouldnt really apply to like what my career would be like in the future

example in the future will i be the next einstein lol?
lol, no, i guess not!...

but interesting ay?
 

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There are many 'scenarios' out there that attempt to show how faster than light travel is possible - just type in "faster than speed of light" in google - some of the links are quite interesting. I remember reading somewhere that unlike the sound barrier, the speed of light is a barrier that cannot be broken, so I would really doubt that faster than light travel is possible...
 

physician

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rama_v said:
There are many 'scenarios' out there that attempt to show how faster than light travel is possible - just type in "faster than speed of light" in google - some of the links are quite interesting. I remember reading somewhere that unlike the sound barrier, the speed of light is a barrier that cannot be broken, so I would really doubt that faster than light travel is possible...
I believe its possible...hehe!
 

physician

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ok, I hoped this disussion would continue..hehe, i guess i made it a little boring with my last post


Let me get this straight, so u guys, believe that if something is traveling faster than the speed of light, it will not be visible to the human eye!..correct?

As some of u have said that if something were to be traveling with a velocity of 3*108.. we would be able to see it the same way we're able to see light!....

Im still not too sure about this last point, anyone want to enlighten me!
 

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Theoretically it is possible to travel at 99.99999999999999% the speed of light but not at the speed of light. It has to do with lorenz's equation of time varying with very high velocities. And it involves Einstein's thought experiments which we were talking about in class today.
 

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i dont actually understand why, but i know that as an object speed increases its mass also seems to increase, and even if somehow they figured out a way for an object to reach 99.999999999% of the speed of light, the mass of the object would become infinite and require infinite amounts of energy to then get to the speed of light.
We have had many discussions about this in my physics class in the last year and it always comes back to the mass becoming infinate and requiring infinate ammounts of energy to get that last lil bit faster.

Anyway if yas a bored and feel like checking out a rather random game that we played in physics the other day CLICK HERE and check out my msn space.
http://spaces.msn.com/members/chrislaidely/Blog/cns!1p0xfmybL5sRhlkfl4jnPqdA!753.entry
 
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Wackedupwacko

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because its relitivity... and if u wanna understand it read many textbooks....

i believe it is possible to REACH the speed of light AND go BEYOND it (well not with current technology but like yea... we'll get there eventually) but the problem is if you are indeed travelling at the speed of light only YOU (in the spaceship) would realise this or rather you feel no movement... and if eisteins relativity is correct (as it has never been actually proven.... well obviously) then you will not be able to see anything and the same the other way around... (same as if ur faster than speed of light).

His theory is only based upon the frames of reference so if u set your reference on earth then yes from the people on earth it is impossible... but from the reference of the spaceship... you may eventually travel fast enough to be beyond the speed of light...

just my take on relativity
 

NightShadow

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it doesn't matter if you can or cannot reach the speed of light...which you cant...BUT ANYWAYY

according to length contraction , when you approach the speed of light...the length will contract until at the speed of light....it ceases to exist...
 

Wackedupwacko

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thats only to the person on earth viewing the space craft (which is what this is all about... perceptions...) see if we take a 3rd point of reference say planet x then the time, space dialation between earth and spacecraft travelling at say 0.99c will disappear... theres now dialation between the 3rd point and the spacecraft but not between spacecraft and earth.... thus its only a perception...

even if you do reach a speed of light noone will know about it as to them youve just disappeared.
 
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Oritsuro

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Hehehe, read something interesting that could possibly be interesting. Apparently passing light through certain mediums (such as prepared Caesium gas) disperses light the wrong way, the red components being slowed more than the blue, changing the way the components add, making light seemingly shift backwards in time...Seems to have no purpose yet though, purely for entertainment purposes.
 

NightShadow

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yeh i've heard of that..that shoved light through the caesium and light travelled faster than normal apparently..so light appeared to come out before they even turned the torch on... freaky...and dont know why...and atM...dont really mind not knowing..test tommorrow^^
 

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