What's faster then the speed of light?

Question

That's the question and it's worth 15% of my Industry Tech. final grade. Im clueless. Maybe, The speed of dark???? or how about the mind but then again the mind is an unmeasureable source for speed. I don't know, but if you do I would love to hear from ya. Thanks

Answer 1

First, the speed limit that you are refering to (the speed of light, C) applies to "transfer of information (i.e. signal)" only, meaning if there is something traveling but carries NO information, then it can exceed the speed of light in vacuum.

Here are 2 examples of this:

(1) Under certain circumstances, the group velocity of a light wave can exceed C. In such cases, the maximum of a pulse may travel with a velocity above C. However, this does not imply the propagation of a signals with a velocity above C, even though one may be tempted to associate pulse maxima with signals. This association has been shown to be misleading, because the information on the arrival of a pulse can be obtained before the pulse maximum arrives. For example, if some mechanism allows the full transmission of the leading part of a pulse while strongly attenuating the pulse maximum and everything behind, the pulse maximum is effectively shifted forward in time, while the information on the pulse does not come faster than without this effect.

(2) The expansion of space from the Big Bang is known to have exceeded the speed of light, but because this expansion conveys no information, or carries any signal, it does not violate Special Relativity.

PS - Tachyons have been proven to be non-existent. No serious physicists nowadays talks about Tachyons anymore. Tachyons originally appeared in string theories, but those theories proved to be inconsistent and were abandoned in favor of the supersymmetric version of string theory, i.e. superstring theory, which contained no tachyons.

Answer 2

This can be a difficult question to answer if you don't understand how light works, but not impossible. I'm not a physics major, but I have read many books on the subject and have a pretty good idea of how you can come to your answer. All the answers below are wrong about an electrical current being faster than the speed of light because light and electrical current are both the same thing-they both travel at the same speed. Nothing travels faster than the speed of light. Remember that. A paper by Albert Einstein written in 1915 called the Theory of General Relativity says so. Also, have to remember, in answering your question, that you don't take it literally such as trying to find an answer like the mind or darkness. There are way to get around it this dilemma. If you want to answer your question, say this: In order to travel faster than the speed of light you have to bend space and time. It's kinda complicated but in theory it's very plausible. Read a book by physicist Brian Greene called "The Elegant Universe." It will definitely help you out. Or just do some research on the Internet. Yahoo! search engine will sure to help!

Answer 3

The correct answer is nothing. Take the limit as v->c on the Lorentz transformation equations. Your length along the direction of motion goes to zero*. Your mass goes to infinity*. Your perception of time also stops.*

*from the point of view of someone in an inertial fame of reference with respect to you.

With regards to electrical current, maybe you've forgotten that light is electromagnetic radiation.

CLARIFICATION: the speed of light IN A VACCUUM. The speed of light in materials varies. You know how how a straw looks bent when it's in a glass of water? That's called refraction, and it has to do with light traveling slower through the water than it does through the air. As far as scientists manipulating the speed of light, that's true. I don't know what the current slow speed is (google it up if you really need to know) but I do know that they slowed it to about 3 m/s, or .001% of the speed of light in a vaccuum. It is possible to make 'light booms' (like a sonic boom) . This is called Cherenkov (sp) radiation.


There are however theoretical particles called Tachyons that go 'faster' than light. They also have negative mass. They have never been detected either.

It is also possible to beat light in a race. Light is un-accelerated and as such is forced to move along a set path in space. Thing is is that gravity bends space. If you drew some stars on a balloon, the light would have to go along the outside of the balloon. If you hold the balloon between your fingers and push them together, that's a way a spaceship could go. You'll beat the light to the finish line, but not because your spedometer went faster than light, but because you took a shortcut.

Edit: the guy below me has no idea what he's talking about.
basic waves velocity equation is velocity = frequency * wavelength. smaller wavelength = higher frequency.
to the Redneck: did you read your wiki article source? sorry chief, the Iranian is right.

Answer 4

The warp force works by making use of the certainty that even however count or something with mass can't return and forth swifter than easy, area itself can. meaning it isn't the deliver that strikes, that's area that strikes by making use of the agency collapsing the gap in front of the deliver and increasing the gap in the back of it. particularly it shortens the gap from easy years to three hundred million kilometres. As to the G forces, there are not any G-forces to to fret approximately. The warp force isn't a great effective antimatter rocket, yet an engine that strikes area. and because that's area that strikes and not the deliver, then there are not any G-forces via fact the deliver would not improve up.

Answer 5

I would disagree with most of the above answers, saying that the speed of the Electricity is faster than that of the Light. It should be realised that light aswell is an Elelctromagnetic wave. So all Electro-Magnetic waves possess the same velocity.

Proven and the widely accepted theory, The Theory of Relativity states that the Velocity of the Light is uncoquerable. For that matter, The theory of Relativity is COMPLETELY based on the HYPOTHESIS that the Velocity of light is CONSTANT and is unreachable.

For sure this theory can be broken. Coz, we know that the Universe is expanding. Should the Light really possess the gretest Velocity, it would have found out the ends of the Universe. But we still didnt. Thus....The speed at which the Universe expands is greater than that of the speed/velocity of the Light.

Have a nice time brain storming.....:)....AND never make rules for your thoughts. Think out of box. Think.....thnk...and just think with no barriers. :)

All the best!

Answer 6

The only thing hypothesized that may have gone faster than the speed of light in a vacuum, is space itself. Less than a second after the big bang, according to some theories, there was the inflationary epoch when space itself expanded at faster than light speed. But not everyone agrees on this.

Some of your answerers claim that light can travel faster in media other than a vacuum. That is not true. Light actually travels slower in other media. There is something called a refractive index, which is defined as the ratio of the speed of light in vaccuo to the speed of light in something else. Here are some sample values of the refractive index:

Refractive Material Index (n)
Vacuum 1.0
Air 1.0 (tiny fraction more than 1) Water 1.33
Glass 1.45-1.48
Lithium niobate 2.25
Gallium arsenide 3.35
Silicon 3.5
Germanium 4.0

As you can see, in all cases the speed of light in a vacuum is always greater than the speed of light in the other media. That is, the refractive index >= 1.0

Some of your answerers claimed gravity does not travel; that it's just there. That is not true. Gravity also travels at the speed of light according to the theory of relativity and according to string theory. In a very true sense, if a far away planet were to explode, astronomers on Earth would see it disappear from their scopes some time after the explosion (due to the light speed limit) and at the same time, the gravitational pull from that planet would also disappear on Earth. If gravity did not travel at some speed, it would never disappear after that planet's explosion.

Tachyons grew out of frustration with the Lorentz equation that predicts infinite energy at the speed of light (c); so no mass can go beyond that speed. So frustrated physicists stared at the equation and asked, "But what if v could exceed c?" If v > c (the speed of something going faster than the speed of light), then E, the energy it takes to get to that speed v, would be in a math realm called an imaginary number. It would be imaginary because, in the Lorentz equation, when v > c, we have to take the square root of a negative number. And that makes the answer, when v > c, an imaginary answer.

So tachyons did not grow out of experimental evidence. They grew out of pure speculation with an equation that yields an imaginary answer when v > c. Oh, and they make great science fiction stuff so the characters can travel faster than the speed of light.

Answer 7

There are a couple of answers to this question.

First, the group velocity of light can exceed the speed of light. Recall that the group velocity of light (or any wave in general) is the velocity at which the energy of the wave is propagating. As well, it can be interpreted as the speed at which the changes in the shape of the amplitude are moving at. There was an experiment done using a laser shooting through a tub of caesium. I believe they achieved something like 250-300 times the speed of light in that case.

The second answer is that light has different speeds in different mediums. Light going through water has a speed less than light travelling through air (to give you an idea, light going through water has 0.75c speed). This doesn't mean however, that a particle can't travel faster than this. Indeed, something like an electron can shoot through water at a greater speed than 0.75c. The observed effect is an eerie green or blue glow, which is a consequence of Cherenkov Radiation. The particle in essence begins to emit light which shoots behind it and produces this glow.

The last two answers are sort of a "cheap" answer, so i'll give you one more. Tachyons are supposed particles which travel faster than the speed of light. There have been rare instances in which possible superluminal activity has been detected, such as in cosmic rays bombarding our atmosphere. These tachyons have very curious properties if they exist. They would have imaginary mass if they have real energy. However, there isn't solid proof of their existance, so for the most part, there's really nothing faster than the speed of light.

Answer 8

Seems like lots of answer out there. However, speed of light could be the fastest if we think of Einstein Theory. However, whichever think out of the box and could prove it then could be the next einstein....

Numerious studies has been carried out, and i believe somebody outhere in China and UK has proven (mathematically) the possibilities beyond the speed of light. However, lots of scientist, professors and PhD out there do not believe. Some believe actually.

If you read the article on how Solar system rotating about another Bigger Solar System, and how this bigger solar system rotating about the other bigger solar system... and go on... until you eventually can imagine how the Universe rotating among itself, and hence how the DARK HOLES Rotating itself against another "yet to be known" system. Then, eventually the speed of rotation is always greater than the light.

Another theory of relativity is that, we are actually travel in the speed of light, and this is how it divides 7 days a week, 60 seconds a minute.. and so on. And every movement we made, is surpassing the speed of light.

Answer 9

The speed of time travel. That makes everything relative, even the speed of light. Time travel mathmatecs were proven by an oriental student at the University of Houston who later went to work for NASA.

Cal-el & Swissy

Answer 10

The speed of a rumor... But serioulsly, nothing. That's a consequence of Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, which has been most thouroughly confirmed, as older residents of Hiroshima know all too well.