According to theory, if we were to travel at the speed of light, we would circumvent the entire universe in zero time. Why then does it take light so damned long to reach us from the outer stars?
2006-08-13 14:09:30 · 13 answers · asked by LeAnne 7 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
If we travel at the speed of light it will take us as much time as it takes the light to make the same distance so in one year we will travel a distance of one light-year. Time will slow down for the traveler but the traveler will be in a completely different frame of reference than the observer. There is a paradox between the Relativity and Quantum physics. Check Feynman's models. your question is still excellent and will have to wait for a young physicist to resolve it for us. Then star travel might become a reality.
2006-08-13 14:19:16 · answer #1 · answered by Pyramider 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You are right in some sense and wrong in some sense. You will feel time at a normal rate, like you are doing now. However, if you could travel at the speed of light, time would effectively stop for you. So a trip that felt like a day for you could actually have taken a million years in our time. In this way, it can SEEM like you have travelled much, much faster than the speed of light.
However, many things will stop you from going the speed of light, or anywhere close to it. The main one would be that no one has the intelligence, the finances, or the the power source to create such a vehicle.
2006-08-13 21:30:16 · answer #2 · answered by iandanielx 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If we travel at the speed of light, time is zero. It means time will not move. It is not that the interval of time is zero. Time itself is zero. In other words your clock will not show time. For us every thing stands still.
Light's speed is constant for all observers. That is why time for a moving observer, going with a speed of light, time becomes zero.
Light’s speed is not instantaneous.
If one imagines that it can be instantaneous, then the time will be absolute and there will not be any relative time. For a moving observer time will be the same as in a frame which is at rest.
2006-08-13 22:05:36 · answer #3 · answered by Pearlsawme 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Light travels at 3 times 10^8 m/s. It has a definate speed.
On the otherhand, Things that posses matter do not have a definate speed at the speed of light. You see, light has no mass, therefore can travel at the speed of light, people, made of matter, cannot travel that fast, based off of equations set by Einstein, proved in Fermelab by the TevaTron.
So light can travel actual distance, while if we were to do that...well nobody knows.
So to answer your question in short. No, light does not travel in zero time.
2006-08-13 21:17:48 · answer #4 · answered by adklsjfklsdj 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"...if we were to travel at the speed of light, we would circumvent the entire universe in zero time..."
Where in the world did you ever get this idea? It's wrong!
In a vacuum light has a finite velocity. Why? Scientists don't bother with questions of why fundamental properties of the universe are as they are. There's just no answer to "Why?"
2006-08-13 21:16:47 · answer #5 · answered by Chug-a-Lug 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Light can travel at that speed but mas as it approaches the speed of light it's mass will increasee to infinity. There is only one thing that has the force to do this and that is a sun collapsing. The mass will increas until light can't escape and it is all sucked into a very small object but a mass of infinity.
Don't try it u want like it
2006-08-13 21:47:00 · answer #6 · answered by JOHNNIE B 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think its because if you could go the speed of light then you would be warping space-time
you get weird things like relative time where the clock in your spaceship moves at a much different rate than one on earth (or anywhere else)
but you would need infinite amount of power to go that fast.
(which is impossible because you weigh more than light)
the universe is really big, really
2006-08-13 21:19:26 · answer #7 · answered by brainiac 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Wrong the speed is relative. IF you fly somewhere at the speed of light, you will age just the same. The only differents is that relative to the ones you left behind you will have not aged as much.
2006-08-13 21:15:24 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You cannot travel at the speed of light - that would take an infinite amount of energy! You can only approach "c". The effect on time dialation can be seen in the "gamma" factor in Einstein's famous equation.
2006-08-13 22:07:29 · answer #9 · answered by Richard T 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Light has its own clock. It doesn't move in time it waves in time.
Matter can travel further than light can by light's clock. Matter's clock will run much slower than light's when near the speed of light. Say you were traveling at 99% the speed of light. Your clock might be going 5 times slower than if you were at rest. This means you could travel 5 times farther light could in its time.
Because your clock is slow you can travel farther than light can by its - faster - clock when the amount of time is equal by both clocks.
This is Faster Than Light travel in space-time.
2006-08-13 22:03:17 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋