It's not impossible. It's just useless to measure speed of anything traveling faster than the speed of light. At the speed, mass is no longer considered a tangible object that we can use measure speeds but merely pure energy. And because we required enormous amount of energy to pursue such speed, energy to a accelerate a non-mass energy state is useless. And at such speed, the normal laws of physics can't be use to explain the relational aspect of velocity and mass. Maybe inside such quantum state, new laws of physics need to explain events inside such event horizon.
2006-07-10 21:25:06
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answer #1
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answered by gerlooser 3
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It's not possible to even travel AT the speed of light, to say nothing of going faster than light. The reason is that as the velocity of some object gets closer and closer to light speed its mass increases. That means that more and more energy would be required to increase its speed. At 99.99999999...% of the speed of light an object's mass would be nearly infinite, and to go any faster would require infinite energy.
This isn't just theory either. In high-energy particle accelerators where velocities near light speed can be given to sub-atomic particles, a measurable mass increase of those particles occurs.
2006-07-11 03:43:13
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answer #2
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answered by Chug-a-Lug 7
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It's not impossible. We as humans just can't see things going faster than the speed of light. With the aid of technology and optic advances we will go faster than the speed of light. There is always something undiscovered that is brighter, faster, hotter etc. We just have to find it or find a way to find it. Have Fun.
2006-07-11 03:26:22
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answer #3
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answered by Lao Tsu's Flower 1
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Brett P is quite wrong - there is no implication from Einstein's equations that faster than light travel could be possible (from those equations, mass, length and energy would all be imaginary at speeds exceeding that of light).
This is simply the way the universe is. We know it is this way because all zero rest mass particles travel at the speed of light in a vacuum, and all travel at that speed independent of frame (i.e. everyone gets the same result for the speed of light).
From this it is possible to show that the energy of a particle with mass measured from a chosen rest frame approaches infinity as the particles speed approaches that of light. This means that you cannot find a frame in which it moves at the speed of light.
Similarly you could look at it from Einsteins equations. Speeds never add to more than the speed of light in these. So if you went left at 90% of the speed of light and I went right at 90% of the speed of light our relative speeds would add to less than that of light.
2006-07-11 03:43:01
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answer #4
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answered by Epidavros 4
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Brett P is right about Einstein's theory. But its possible that science hasn't evolved enough to really know if it's possible or not. No one has had a chance to try it yet. Maybe if it is possible, the next step would be trying to travel as fast as gravity....gravity can bend light, therefore its forces are stronger than light and possibly travel faster.......lol
2006-07-11 03:31:43
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answer #5
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answered by chris t 1
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It is only impossible as long as we think that it is. LOL
I think that the real problem is that we know that travelling at or beyond the speed of light would alter time, and that we inherently know that it would mess with the order of the universe.
2006-07-11 03:26:55
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answer #6
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answered by Loulabelle 4
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It takes an infinite amount of energy to accelerate any finite mass to the speed of light. Only massless particles (photons) can travel the speed of light.
2006-07-11 03:32:54
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answer #7
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answered by gp4rts 7
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actualy.. if you look at some of einstine's equations.. it's impossible to travel AT the speed of light.. but theoreticaly possible to travel faster. (it has to do w/ the speed of light making the denominator 0.. which.. doesnt have an answer)
2006-07-11 03:23:41
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answer #8
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answered by Lestat 2
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Because you cannot get to the speed of light. If you wanted to accelerate from sub-light speed to super-light speed, you would have to go through the speed of light, and as several responders have correctly noted, you can't do that.
2006-07-11 04:52:27
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answer #9
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answered by Anonymous
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it is impossible because it takes an infinite amount of energy for anything to go the speed of light, which is practically impossible in itself. so it wouldnt be possible to gather more than an infinite amount of energy to go faster than it.
2006-07-11 03:46:43
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answer #10
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answered by mozartrox811 2
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