What is the most feasible way to explain the speed of light as the speed limit? (1 Viewer)

Run hard@thehsc

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2021
Messages
784
Gender
Male
HSC
2022
^^^^ Any insight would be appreciated!!! I have seen responses from the stance of discussing impulse as opposed mass dilation....
 

Epicman69

Active Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2020
Messages
213
Gender
Male
HSC
2022
Can't you just say, by the relativistic Momentum formula, we can see that as an object approach the speed of light, the momentum of that object (basically kinetic energy) approaches infinity (any number divided by something approaching zero approaches infinity), meaning in order to achieve the speed of light we will need to create infinite energy which will break the conservation of energy which states that no energy can be destroyed or created only transferred/transformed. This means that the speed of light is the limit of how fast an object can travel.

Edit: Added relativistic lol
 

Run hard@thehsc

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2021
Messages
784
Gender
Male
HSC
2022
Can't you just say, by the relativistic Momentum formula, we can see that as an object approach the speed of light, the momentum of that object (basically kinetic energy) approaches infinity (any number divided by something approaching zero approaches infinity), meaning in order to achieve the speed of light we will need to create infinite energy which will break the conservation of energy which states that no energy can be destroyed or created only transferred/transformed. This means that the speed of light is the limit of how fast an object can travel.

Edit: Added relativistic lol
ye fair thats what I would have written lol
 

Epicman69

Active Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2020
Messages
213
Gender
Male
HSC
2022
ye fair thats what I would have written lol
Mind you, momentum isn't really kinetic energy, I just said it was to simplify it. They are kinda related because momentum is created when an object is in motion and an object only has kinetic energy when it is in motion.
 

Run hard@thehsc

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2021
Messages
784
Gender
Male
HSC
2022
Mind you, momentum isn't really kinetic energy, I just said it was to simplify it. They are kinda related because momentum is created when an object is in motion and an object only has kinetic energy when it is in motion.
ye got that - in essence, as the velocity approaches the speed of light, the relativistic momentum approaches infinity, and the mass begins to dilate as a result (since mass is a measure of energy as per the energy-mass equivalence proposed by Einstein), since mass is a measure of inertia, and inertia increases with velocity. Hence, as the relativistic mass approaches infinity, it demands an 'infinite' amount of energy/force for that mass to travel at the speed of light or accelerate toward it - this is simply not plausible nor practically since no sufficient energy nor force will be sufficient to accelerate to the speed of light!!!
 

wizzkids

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2016
Messages
332
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
1998
The relativistic momentum argument is the best line to take in the HSC syllabus.
Perhaps there is another way to argue that "C" is a cosmic speed limit, because "C" is the maximum speed of causality. Any two objects that are travelling at a relative speed greater than "C" cannot be part of the same Spacetime interval, and they cannot be causally connected. No force, no particle, no field and no information can be passed between these objects. Minkowski said that such objects belong to "elsewhere" and they are not observable in our current Spacetime.
 

idkkdi

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2019
Messages
2,567
Gender
Male
HSC
2021
^^^^ Any insight would be appreciated!!! I have seen responses from the stance of discussing impulse as opposed mass dilation....
iirc, basically maxwell's equations implies c = 1/sqrt(the two constant)
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top