Nothing whit mass can go faster than the light speed, why can´t photons go faster than the light speed?

Question

Remember, the photons don't have mass, then they can do it and return in the time. That means that information of the future can arrive.

Answer 1

Actually photons can travel faster than light (sorta). There's something called a group velocity of a wave. Scientists can have made this reach speed up to 5 times faster than light. Unfortunately the wave velocity has never breach 3*10^8 m/s.

They are however superluminal particles called tachyons. You should read up on those, truely interesting.

Answer 2

There are quite a few way's of avoiding answering this question,

My personal favourite is to say that the term light is by definition the fastest 'speed' possible. Therefore if the photons did speed up then this would simply be the 'new' speed of light. Check out the book 'faster that the speed of light' by Joao Magueijo's it is the story of the development of a VSL (varying speed of light) theory, it is an alternative to the inflation theory within the big band model. Very intersting idea, although I don't think it has any experimental confirmation.

Although I have wondered this too also, Just one idea (i just thought of now) is that you can't simply consider the photon as a particle in the traditional sense you have to consider wave-particle duality, perhaps when the photon/light wave reaches 3E8 ms-1 it begins to 'interact' with space-time it'self which cause the probability way to collapse (that statement is not really correct) and subsequentially the quantum state is reverts to a 'real' state which then would accuire mass if the photon speeded up any more.

Now that last paragraph was just me thinking on paper and I'm sure is complete rubish! I am currently in my second year of a physics degree and have asked my lectures similar question some have given me answers that seem to avoid the point and others tell me to hold that thought till my 4th year!

Answer 3

im assuming you want the simple answer, that is suggested by your question.

if nothing with mass can go faster than the speed of light, and photons cant go faster than the speed of light, this implies that photons have mass. i would point out however, that a photon cannot go at less than the speed of light either.

the mass of a photon is 6×10−17 eV.

@Rosco
i would suggest in this case that the probability wave has already been collapsed, and this has led to the formation of the photon. as you probably know, all matter exists in a superposition of states until it is observed, and as the photon is existing, the system must have already been observed, therefore the wave has collapsed.

if you cant get any answers from your tutors, try In Search of Schroedingers Car, and Schrodeingers Kittens, both by John Gribbin.

Answer 4

Don't be discouraged by some of the answers you're getting.

Yours is actually an intriguing question, if only you would gaze into the shadows it casts.

Photons are imprudently said to be light. Light is never in time nor space, but its effect, the photon, must always be in both time and space, meaning intrinsically that the photon is an historical entity. For a most definitive study of this problem which modern physics has not the clear exposition of, turn to what Aristotle said about light. Discover his meaning in the statement (which many have puzzled over mightily, but which is so very elegantly simple), light is the instantaneous change of state.

I am handing you the key to the kingdom in this simple explanation. It is a challenge to you! Good luck.

Answer 5

Photons may be 'tricked' into traveling faster than light by traveling to dimensions. Check out the slit experiment and "many worlds interpretation". It's an old experiment but has been updated with a twist. to show 1 photon passes through a slit and projects several photons

Answer 6

I believe photons, are like a wave, or a particle also or something, but whatever it is, like one previous person said, photons are light therefore they are the speed of light, now once a friend told me that he read in some book that they actually, somehow accelerated the speed of the proton, and it arrived at its destination before it was sent, but im not sure.

Answer 7

It's baloney. Light speed is not an absolute, any more than the speed of sound used to be. Easy to prove by picturing this. Put a wheel in space, no friction or gravity to mess things up. The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second, so make this easy by saying that wheel is really big, 186,000 miles in circumference. Start the wheel spinning, slowly building up to 60 rpm. That means the wheel turns 60 times a minute, or once a second. It also means that any given point on the outside edge of the wheel passes the same location once each second, travelling the 186,00 miles in one second. Now, bump the speed of rotation up slightly. This means the wheel's outside edge passes at a rate less than once a second, and is traveling faster than 186,000 miles per second, exceeding the speed of light. If an object attached to the outer edge were suddenly released, it would fly away at a speed faster than light speed. It would be moving faster than 186,000 miles per second. And you can decrease the size of the wheel and still make it work by simply adding more rpm to make up for it. So, the theory is wrong. With a little imagination, you can see how the speed of light can be broken. But remember, it is relative to something motionless.

Answer 8

Since by light speed, you indicate the speed of photons, whatever speed to go, they are still at the speed of light. They can't go faster than themselves!

Answer 9

Nothing with mass can go AS FAST AS the speed of light, only approach it. Light travels at c in a vacuum because that is as fast as information can propagate through space.

Answer 10

Correction......photons have no REST mass.

In other words....when they are not in motion they don't exist essentially, but when they do exist they have mass. As such they are subject to the whole can't-go-faster-than-light thing that everything else is subject to.