is it theoretically possible to travel faster than the speed of light.?

Answer 1

The simple answer is No.
There is theory that may allow travel to a distant place faster than light would travel to that place, however, the traveler would never go faster than light or even close to it.
There is also the elusive Tachyon that is already faster than light and the more energy you put into it the slower it goes.

the best science to date says "NO" mass may exceed the 'speed of light in a vacuum'

Science has slowed light down to a few miles per hour in the laboratory, so in those cases we all can travel faster than light.


Yours: Grumpy

Answer 2

Well, when you explore our world in theoretics... anything's possible. That's why they're called 'theoretics' in the first place.

However, according to our modern laws of physics... the answer is no. It isn't possible to travel faster than the speed of light, and I'll explain why.

See, the speed of light (186 282.397 miles per second) is the speed limit in our universe that, to our knowledge, cannot be broken. There are two particles that travel at the speed of light - photons, the transmission particles of the electromagnetic force, and gluons, the transmission particles for the strong nuclear force. However, gluons are considered to be a 'virtual particle' - that is, they never exist on their own, and we aren't able to directly observe their existence. We just know that they're there.

Now, photons have zero rest mass - that is, it's got no mass. But, you ask, how can something have energy, but no mass? Aren't mass and energy the same thing? Well, the photon has no rest mass, but it has momentum. In this way, the photon can have the energy required to exist, but it has no mass, so it can travel at the speed of light.

No matter how hard we try, we cannot accelerate any particle to the speed of light. We have accelerated photons to 99.999% the speed of light, but we can't go any further because our particle accelerators aren't powerful enough. As you try to accelerate something to the speed of light, its mass begins to increase, because you must put more energy into the particle you're trying to accelerate (remember, mass and energy are the same thing, as shown in Einstein's E=MC^2). When the mass increases, you must use more energy to accelerate further - and this process continues in a perpetual cycle, to the point that you must use an infinite amount of energy to accelerate it - and we can't use an infinite amount of energy.

The only exception we have to this rule is the particle known as the tachyon. This particle's speed increases as the energy decreases! In a minute, I'll show you the math that explains the tachyon's properties. More astounding still is the fact that no matter how much energy you put into a tachyon, it's not allowed to slow down to the speed of light or below - the inverse of normal particles.

Now, for the math. Consider Einstein's equation, E=MC^2. Now, the WHOLE equation reads like this:

E = MC^2 / √ (1 - v^2 / c^2)

[That's E equals MC squared, divided by the square root of the quantity: one minus velocity squared divided by the speed of light squared.)

Now, for normal matter, this shows that as you increase energy increases as you increase velocity - that's what makes it impossible for normal matter to accelerate to the speed of light. However, a tachyon's mass is *imaginary*. To keep the energy a real value, the denominator must then be made an imaginary number, because an imaginary divided by an imaginary is a real number. Now, to MAKE the bottom imaginary, the square root has to be negative. (If you ever take any Algebra 2 or pre-calculus, you'll cover this in class). The only way to make the stuff inside the square root negative is to make the VELOCITY bigger than the speed of light!

By doing this, you can A) see how a tachyon's concept makes it faster-than-light, and B) how it cannot go at or below the speed of light. So, no matter how much energy we put into it, we can't get it slower than C, the speed of light.

Hope this helps!

Answer 3

No! Not only is it theoretically impossible to move FASTER than light, but it's theoretically iimpossible to move AT the speed of light. To do so would required infinite energy (all the energy in the universe)

Answer 4

Tachyons are theoretical sub-atomic entities which already travel faster than the speed of light.

Google them if you'd like a headache!

Answer 5

Hi,
Yes, the problem comes not with traveling faster than light but accelerating up to that velocity

Answer 6

The momentum regimes are, relative to 'c' (the speed of light):

'v' < 'c': Momentum is a real number.
'v' = 'c': Momentum is infinity.
'v' > 'c': Momentum is negative-imaginary.

This is found using the 'gamma factor', which is 1 / sqrt(1 - v^2/c^2).

If 'v' < 'c', then the gamma factor gives a positive number under the radical, yielding a real number.

If 'v' = 'c', then the gamma factor gives zero under the radical, which, when divided into anything, gives infinity.

If 'v' > 'c', then the gamma factor gives a negative number under the radical. Evaluating the radical gives a positive imaginary number. Dividing a positive imaginary number into a real number gives a negative imaginary number. Therefore, your momentum would be negative imaginary.

Answer 7

If you travel faster than the speed of light, then you would be time travelling.

Do you believe in time travel? :)

Answer 8

not at all !
when einstein put forth his theory of relativity he made it very clear that vel of light is a constant in inertial & non-inertial frame for every object in universe.if an object travels at this vel,then according to relativity, light's vel relative to the object will be zero.
but as vel of light is constant for every thing it is not possible.
also on travelling at vel near the vel of light Lorentz factor will affect objects mass,length & time. but at vel of light the objects mass, length and time will 'not be defined(infinity)' which is theoratically impossible

Answer 9

no