What would it take for us to travel at the speed of light?

Answer 1

HI invisimann1

IN a relativistic universe such as ours only particles with zero rest mass travel at the speed of light (actually, it is also true that *all* zero rest mass particles *must* travel at the speed of light). Examples of particles with zero rest mass include photons (the exchange boson of the electromagnetic interaction) and gluons (the exchange boson of the strong nuclear interaction). On the other hand, we have mass so we can't travel at the speed of light locally.

However... there are two classes of circumventions:
1. Travel at the speed of light in a viscous medium. In any non-vacuum light doesn't travel at c, it travels at c/n where n is the refractive index of the medium. There is no reason why we couldn't travel at a speed greater than c/n through some medium. In fact massive particles regularly exceed the speed of light in water around nuclear reactors. In water the speed of light is reduced from 299792458m/s to c/1.33 = 225407863m/s. High speed particles travel through the water at speeds slower than c but faster than c/n. As a result they produce Cherenkov radiation (a cascade of blue light triggered by faster than light travel).

2. Global speed of light travel. This is done by cheating space-time paths. Suppose you want to get from A to B. Light travels a straight line route from A to B and takes some time t to get there. To travel as fast as light globally you need only get there in the same amount of time t as light. Since you can't travel at c, the only way to get from A to B in the same time as light takes to get there is to *travel a shorter distance* than light does. To do this you stitch together a space-time shortcut (eg a wormhole) using general relativity and voila - you arrive at B at the same time as a light signal does (of course there is the small matter of making and maintaining a macroscopic wormhole...)


Hope this helps!
The Chicken

Answer 2

well according to our good friend Mr. Einstein's relativity theory any thing that has any mass (such as us) actually gains mass as it has greater speed. This effect is negligible at low speeds but increase exponentially towards light speed. So if you actually were to go the speed of light your mass would become infinite. So the problem is that the more mass an object has the more energy it takes to accelerate it. So it takes more and more energy to accelerate an object as it goes faster and gains mass. So in order to accelerate an object to the speed of light (which would cause it to have infinite mass) would require infinite energy. Of course we don't have a handy source of infinite energy, so it is impossible to accelerate something with mass to the speed of light.

Answer 3

A complete suspension of the immutable laws of physics...

Consider cars. A 100 horsepower car can travel comfortably at about 100 miles an hour. If you want that car to travel faster then you have to add more horsepower to overcome many variables, but mostly the car's own inertia. If you want the car to travel 200 miles an hour (twice as fast) then you're looking at around 500 horsepower (5 times the energy output). If you want the car to go 250 miles an hour (2.5 times as fast) then you're looking at 1000 horsepower (10 times the energy output). If you want the car to go 1000 miles an hour (10 times as fast) then you're looking at 100,000 horsepower, etc. The energy required to accelerate your car to the speed of life is infinite, and thus is not available to do the job.

Answer 4

We would have to be composed of light. Our bodies can't withstand certain speeds; we'd be killed if we tried. Even traveling at the speed of sound is very dangerous and the speed of sound is many times slower than the speed of light.

Answer 5

for reasons of time travel? if you could somehow accelerate to the speed of light, i think that you may become light. my theory if instead of meeting light on its playground, we should slow it down and jump on a wave. there are circumstances where light slows down or speeds up (thru glass,water) we need to study that and learn how to amplify that phenomenon. this may also be an ultimate weapon to be able to slow down about 5 minutes of light from a deer jacking light(1 million candlepower) and release it all at once. i love this subject. how bout if you had a mirror in front of you and you were going at the speed of light and you looked at your reflection. what would you see behind you?

Answer 6

First, we'd have to be broken down into molecular matter. we would then have to be pushed by the light(like a spitball from a straw). If that was possible, we would then need to have the means to be put back together into a whole upon destination.(maybe another 100 years of experimenting with DNA could make that possible).

this method would not allow us to go FASTER than light however, as the spped of light would be the limitation.

Answer 7

Infinite energy, like all the energy in the entire universe. That's why no material object can move at the speed of light.

Answer 8

so some distance as i can see, no one has managed to respond to your question wisely. in the starting up - it really is not achieveable to holiday on the speed of sunshine, or swifter than it. under no circumstances, under no circumstances, under no circumstances. hence wondering what would take position if we did is unnecessary. even if, as Einstein confirmed, weird and wonderful, weird and wonderful issues commence to take position the swifter we bypass - maximum noticeably time dilation. At speeds drawing close those of sunshine, any travellers time would decelerate relative to everyone who got here about to be observing them. hence, theoretically, shall we probably time holiday if shall we manage to holiday at a speed close to to gentle - yet it really is actual not achieveable with on the prompt's technologies. This in straightforward words pertains to time holiday into the destiny, btw - there is not any contemporary idea on how holiday into the previous will be carried out.

Answer 9

1. If we could travel that fast, the fuel and energy cells would have to be measured prefectly, wheather solar panels, or neuclar type.2. Then the spacecraft would have be designed to take that speed too, any other bright ideas.

Answer 10

Science fiction is not worried about velocity of light travel.What do they know that we don't?In the television series Deep Space Nine they disappear because they have just traveled 186,281 miles in one second!