If we ever manage to surpass the speed of light, how could it be done?

Question

Ok, so I know that, by conventional methods, it would be impossible to go faster than the speed of light, but is there another way? Is there a conceivable way around the relativistic affects of near light speed travel?

Answer 1

Um, i was thinking that, we somehow "grab" onto a lot of light particles, maybe from a laser so that it is in one straight line.
After we launch in space, we would be moving at the speed of light, but if we were to "throw" ourselves kind of like a catapult using the photons and whatnot from the laser, then we would pass the speed of light, and nothing can slow us down in space, so we would go faster and faster. And from there, we can reach a galaxy in probably -1 years (yes, negative 1 years)
because since we are moving at the speed of light, if Einsteins theory is correct, when moving at the speed of light, time seems to not move (to you).
so if we move faster than light, then that means time should seem to be going backwards.
don't steal my ideas and win the noble peace prize please

Answer 2

In some sense this has already been done. The speed of light in materials is slower than in a vacuum, and we can send particles through faster than this. Even easier: force the light to travel off several mirrors while you go straight from A to B. But you are obviously interested in the speed of light in vacuum--starship travel, etc.

There is a consensus that "gravitation" is an effect of the curvature of space (never mind into which direction) due to the presence of mass. Very well, so if this thing called "space" can be "curved" then (knowing what we know of curved things) could we possibly make a shortcut from A to B in a "straight line?" This is the idea of a "wormhole:" the curved space is amalogous to the curved surface of an apple, and the shortcut is analogous to a worm's path through the apple. In travelling through such a thing you might not be exceeding the speed of light, but you are certainly going faster than a light ray forced to take the long way round, so you are travelling faster than light "on average."

Just as you can get "faster" than light speed by introducing matter into the path of the light, so you can beat the light beam by introducing structure into the fabric of space.

Answer 3

Oh, there's all kinds of hard-to-understand theories about this.

Some more straightforward ideas:

Wormholes. You're not actually moving faster than light, you're just taking a "shortcut" through space. If you go through a wormhole, you can get from one point to another without actually traveling the distance between them.

Hyperspace! Do your traveling in a reality that has different physical laws and special relativity is meaningless. Going faster than light isn't possible in our universe, but maybe it is in another. This is basically like going to Holland to buy pot, but a little more complicated.

Change the speed of light. No problem there!

More info at Wikipedia, as usual.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than-light

Answer 4

The key to being able to travel faster than light is to warp space itself. That is....to create a sufficiently bent spacetime field around your ship and by applying an energy (warp) vector across the warp, propel the ship forward. Or, to allow the warped spacetime to snap back to normal, also providing propulsion.

I've answered the question more than half a dozen times previously, so I wish that many of you would take the time reading through the previously answered questions!!. Gets rather repetitive.

Anyway, there are any number of researchers looking into the manipulation of the spacetime metric. The theory is much farther along than you might think or believe. I'll give you some references to look at.......I'm a little tired of trying to explain it to people at present.

Answer 5

There isn,t the Maxwell's theory / SRT without electron.
The electron is a main and single hero in the Maxwell's theory and SRT.
1) What does the electron do in Maxwell's theory?
Maxwell's equations have no relation to the movement of the electron.
They describe the distribution of electromagnetic waves
but not the movement of a particle such as an electron.
In Maxwell's theory, the electron is considered local,
as though the particle is "at rest".
This means that it particle does not move rectilinearly,
but rotates around the diameter
(has the form of a sphere- geoid).
The electron rotates around of its diameter with the speed
more than c=1. / Tachion theory/.
Therefore:
1.The electron has an electrical charge e =±√ ħcα
2. This electron /charge has energy E = ħw
The rotation of the electron creates electrical waves.

Answer 6

If we combine all the energy in the universe, we can go very near the speed of light. According to science, we can travel after than light, but not at the speed of light.

Answer 7

Currently, no human mind has comprehened any way to travel faster than the speed of light. The most promising area to find this answer is the study of String Theory, but the challenge there is creating the instruments that magnify enough to actually see the strings to be able to study them.

Answer 8

There have been lots of discussions in the astrophysics world about
worm-holes. Perhaps, IF they existed, travel through them would
appear from our point of view to be travel faster than light.

Actually, it would appear to be a discontinuity - first the traveller was
here, then he was there - but you couldn't see him anywhere in between.

In any case, this is all conjecture - in the world of gravity wells that
Einstein described, it ain't gonna happen. Perhaps in the world of
particle physics and string theory, it might - but there's nothing even
on the horizon other than worm holes that even comes close.

Answer 9

THAT'S ONE THING THE PHILADELPHIA PROJECT WAS WORKING ON IN THE EARLY DAYSDON'T KNOW THE EXACT THEORY OR THE MATH>

Answer 10

If you travel at the speed of light, time would become stationary, faster you should go back in time.
"IF" we could develop a method of travel equal to the speed of light, I believe we could exceed it.