If I were traveling on a plane at 1 mph slower than the speed of light but.....?

Question

I suddenly got up and ran forward at a rate of 10 mph in the same direction as the plane is traveling, would I not be traveling faster than the speed of light? Assumer you are sitting on the ground, what would I look like to you? Please consider this without sighting a mathematical formula or any of Einstein's theories of relativity. If you are considering a theory, please explain why when increasing velocity as it approaches the speed of light, it is believed that mass expands. Perhaps that equation could be rewritten so that the speed of light (c) is not a constant? Again, please consider not what you have been told but what you can deduct on your own.

Answer 1

First of all, I'd like to state that I don't believe the speed of light is the fastest one can go. *GASP* Yes, I know, I'm saying Einstein is wrong. I'm not suggesting I'm smarter than him, just that he's not perfect.

Light is a form of energy, and as we know, energy particles can be accelerated. This has nothing to do with the question, though, so I'll move on.

If this hypothetical plane could travel at a speed of 1 mph slower than the speed of light, then it's entirely feasible that you could move faster than the speed of light. However, by the time we develope the technology to test this theory, I don't think "Can we move faster than the speed of light" will even be a question worthy of serious consideration. If you were on this hypothetical plane, moving at this hypothetical speed, of course (after the initial acceleration to that speed) you could stand and move faster than the speed of light, assuming you can move faster than 1 mph on your own. You would then be moving at the theoretical speed of "warp 1.x".

Answer 2

You certainly would be, but it would be impossible to do. As mater travels faster and faster it stores kinetic energy, the energy of motion. That energy is expressed as a very slight increase in mass. This is a real thing. If you throw a baseball the mass of the baseball increases slightly due to the energy you imparted to it by throwing it. Since it is a very small amount of energy the mass increase is really really tiny.

The mass increase is very slight if the object is moving slowly. However, if the object is traveling close to the speed of light the increase in mass is enormous. In fact to reach the exact speed of light the mass of the object becomes infinite. So if you were traveling 1 mile per hour less than the speed of light your weight would be nearly infinite. If you were then to try to run your mass would have to increase to infinite, which is impossible and which is why you cannot travel the at the speed of light, let alone faster.

By the way light itself can travel at the speed of light only because it has no mass. In fact light can only travel at the speed of light. There is no such thing as a stationary photon. It is ether traveling or it does not exist.

Answer 3

You would not be able to run forward at 10 mph relative to the plane, because nothing in our dimension can travel faster than the speed of light. I believe that there is another universe that can not travel slower than the speed of light. Einstein was just trying to explain OUR universe.

Answer 4

if u were travelling at 1 mph slower than speed of light that is approximately 3*10^8 km/hr then light would be travelling that much faster than u and the speed of light will always be 3*10^8 irrespective of how fast you are going. C is a CONSTANT VALUE.

Answer 5

Here is a clear and correct statement of your question.

1. You are travelling on a plane
2. I am sitting on the ground observing the plane
3. The plane appears to me to be travelling at 1 mph less than the speed of light
4. You then run forward on the plane at a speed which appears to you to be 10 mph.

Do I not then observe you to be travelling at the speed of light plus 9 mph? Answer without formulas.

Answer: No. Velocities are not simply additive, even though our intuition tells us that they ought to be. There is a relativistic velocity addition formula. At speeds close to that of light, you must use this formula. When it is used to combine the plane's speed relative to the ground, and the speed at which you see yourself to be running forward in the plane, the resultant speed at which you appear to me to be travelling is still below the speed of light.

Answer 6

No, because you can't go faster than the vehicle in which you're traveling. If you were on a train going 50 mph and stood up and started walking two mph you would still be traveling at 50 mph because that's the speed of the train.

Answer 7

The answer is no because you can't travel faster than the speed of light.

Another example: a train is going at the speed of light. If you turn a flashlight on pointing in the direction the train is going, the speed of its light would still be the speed of light (not twice the speed of light, which is the intuitive answer).

Answer 8

The first thing is: for light to travel a material medium is not necessary.

It can travel in vacuum; it is electro-magnetic in nature. Electric field and magnetic field can exist in vacuum. The speed of the wave depends upon the permittivity and permeability of the medium. The value of the speed of light in vacuum is 3x 10^8 m/s.

If the speed in vacuum is to be increased or decreased, that can be done only by changing the value of the permittivity and permeability of vacuum; but they are constants for vacuum and hence we cannot increase or decrease the speed of light in vacuum.

Therefore, the speed of light is the maximum in vacuum. This is known even before the special theory of relativity.

Another important property about light is the measurement of speed of light when moving toward a light beam, away from a light beam and when at rest.

In all the above experiments the speed of light is measured as the same. It also does not depend upon the speed with which we approach or recede from the light.

This is the most important thing that one must consider.

When we move toward a light beam, we are moving closer to it; that means we must receive the light beam earlier than that if we were at rest.
Similarly, if we move away from it we must receive the light latter than that if we were at rest.

Suppose that we are moving toward a light beam with a speed of 0.8C, where C is the speed of light in vacuum. If we measure the speed of light, it should be (1- 0.8)C
= 0.2 C; But it is not 0.2C; it is again C.

How is it possible?

The stationary observer measures the speed by measuring the distance traveled by light in one second. He calculates that the light takes one second to travel a distance of 1, 80,000 mile.

For the moving observer, the length reduces by a factor of 0.6 when he moves with a speed of 0.8C. He will measure the distance as 1, 08,000 mile and the time as 0.6s.

For the moving observer the length is shortened due to the speed. The time is slowed (dilated) due to the speed. He calculates the speed of light as 108000/ 0.6= 1, 80,000 mile/ second.

Similarly it can be shown that the mass increases when the speed increases.

Answer 9

If you were going 1 mph below the speed of light, your relative mass would be so large that you would not be able to run at a rate of 10 mph. (Heavier Things find it harder to run)

This is because mass at a velocity is m = m0/(1-(c/v)^2)^.5
Where m is the relative mass, m0 is your mass when you aren't moving, c is the speed of light, and v is your speed. Because v is so big, so will m, and so you can't run at 10 mph.

Answer 10

This is an extremely good question:

Well, in theory as you approached the speed of light while traveling in the plane, you would slowly experience a "bond-shift". See, as you arrive closer to the speed of light, the bonds between atoms become weaker and weaker. It is because the photon is not bonded to another particle that it is able to travel at the speed of light. If you were able to shoot a molecule of water at the speed of light, in theory, its bonds would separate and it would never reach the speed of light. Each atom would travel only at the speed at which it could safely travel without being obliterated into protons and neutrons and electrons. So if you traveled at the speed of light, the bonds that compose your body would split and you would no longer exist, making sure you would never travel faster than the speed of light.

However, since this is all theory- untested theory at that- anything could be accepted to be truth.

The basic conception is that -relative to the universe- even in this situation you would not be traveling faster than the speed of light.

Look at it this way: say you are in a car going in one direction at 30 miles per hour and another person is going in a car the opposite direction at 30 miles per hour. Relative to each other you are going 60 miles per hour, but relative to a stationary observer you are going 30 miles per hour. So relative to a photon going the speed of light, you would only be going 10 miles per hour, while relative to a stationary observer you would be going faster than the speed of light- an anomaly that can happen whenever photons go in opposite directions. (and in that case they are both going twice the speed of light relative to each other)