Joined: Feb 17 2002 Posts: 28357 Location: MACS0647-JD
Turns out old Albert's theories do not, according to some whizzes, exclude travel at faster than light speed.
As i read it, it isn't possible to travel AT the speed of light, or believed previously to be so, since at that speed, time "stands still" and mass "becomes infinite". But in fact, it would be fair to say that all theories of physics break down at that point as they can't describe the conditions in a singularity.
However what these guys have done is to go beyond that speed and simply extend Einstein's theory, which continues to work perfectly well at greater than light speeds.
So, it may be that the speed of light is just another barrier that is possible to cross, like the sound barrier turned out to be. ARTICLE
Turns out old Albert's theories do not, according to some whizzes, exclude travel at faster than light speed.
As i read it, it isn't possible to travel AT the speed of light, or believed previously to be so, since at that speed, time "stands still" and mass "becomes infinite". But in fact, it would be fair to say that all theories of physics break down at that point as they can't describe the conditions in a singularity.
However what these guys have done is to go beyond that speed and simply extend Einstein's theory, which continues to work perfectly well at greater than light speeds.
So, it may be that the speed of light is just another barrier that is possible to cross, like the sound barrier turned out to be. ARTICLE
Last edited by Ferocious Aardvark on stardate Jun 26, 3013 11:27 am, edited 48,562,867,458,300,023 times in total
Joined: Jul 31 2003 Posts: 36786 Location: Leafy Worcester, home of the Black Pear
Quote:"The actual business of going through the speed of light is not defined," Hill told LiveScience. "The theory we've come up with is simply for velocities greater than the speed of light."
Aye - the devil's always in the detail, isn't it?
I like the bit comparing it to crossing the sound barrier. The major difference being, of course, that achieving supersonic velocity does not involve assuming infinite mass and having the entire Universe collapse in on you.
Hold on to me baby, his bony hands will do you no harm It said in the cards, we lost our souls to the Nameless One
Joined: Feb 17 2002 Posts: 28357 Location: MACS0647-JD
Kosh wrote:Aye - the devil's always in the detail, isn't it?
I like the bit comparing it to crossing the sound barrier. The major difference being, of course, that achieving supersonic velocity does not involve assuming infinite mass and having the entire Universe collapse in on you.
But many scientists assumed you could not break the sound barrier, or if you did, Bad Things Would Happen.
I am no expert on Einstein, but if I get the point correctly, it isn't quite that mass "is infinite", but that if you follow the theory to its conclusion (assuming that the speed of light was the "conclusion" then that would be the apparent result, but such a result is not a real result in the sense that that state cannot be described by the laws of physics.
Also the entire universe doesn't collapse in on you at the speed of light. Ask any photon, or enquire outside the event horizon of any black hole!
Last edited by Ferocious Aardvark on stardate Jun 26, 3013 11:27 am, edited 48,562,867,458,300,023 times in total
Joined: Mar 09 2004 Posts: 33944 Location: watching out for low flying geese
But what happens when you go slower than the speed of dark?
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SOMEBODY SAID that it couldn’t be done But he with a chuckle replied That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried. So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin On his face. If he worried he hid it. He started to sing as he tackled the thing That couldn’t be done, and he did it!
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