2006-09-01 09:13:35 · 6 answers · asked by Nic 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
All electromagnetic radiation travels more or less at the speed of light. That includes radio waves, infrared, visible stuff, and gamma and x-rays. If you want to go faster than light, you've got four options:
TUNNELLING. Tunnelling is a quantum mechanical effect where a particle simply shows up on the other side of barriers that are impossible to breach. The interesting thing about tunnelling is that the particle does not go through the space in between... it just disappears at one point and appears at the other side. There have been experiments performed where coded signals were beamed into a solid bar and they tunnelled through and were decoded on the other side. Since they skipped the space in the middle, their overall speed was measured at four times the speed of light. It bears mention that more than 99% of the energy in the signal was lost, so although there's no theoretical reason why larger objects couldn't do the same, it's not exactly something I'd try, myself.
WORMHOLES. Theory predicts these guys, but nobody's ever really found one yet. It's thought that they might be around but just really, really, really small. If so, it might be possible to obtain one, stretch it out, and move it around. It would be like a tunnel except with movable ends. You could keep one end in your living room and send the other end to a pizza place to cut down on delivery times. Or send the other end to Alpha Centauri, and then you could hop back and forth across light years in pretty much no time at all. But since there's no experimental evidence of even the existance of these guys, much less being able to do all the other stuff you'd have to do, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for this one, either.
TACHYONS. Interestingly enough, while theory says it's impossible to go faster than light from a slow-than-light condition, there's nothing to prevent the existance of particles which are ALWAYS faster than light. These show up in some theories and have been dubbed 'tachyons', though they also have never been found. Many suggest that presence of tachyons are a sign of a flawed theory rather than any actual physical thing.
WARP SPACE ITSELF. As we all know, the universe is expanding. Space itself is stretching out and seperating objects, and the expansion and contraction of space is not bound by rules of motion. If you could CAUSE space to contract in front of you and expand behind you, you would essentially be moving a bubble of space, not an object itself, and could exceed the speed of light. There are theoretical ways to do this, but they also require a theoretical negative enegy which has never been actually established either. Alas.
Of course, none of these methods are indisputed... quite the contrary, they are all VERY heavily contested. But they are, at least, all theoretically possible. Hope that helps!
2006-09-01 10:03:07 · answer #1 · answered by Doctor Why 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Gamma ray same speed as light
2006-09-01 16:57:26 · answer #2 · answered by Dr M 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
light is electromagnetic radiation. Gamma rays are high-frequency electromagnetic radiation, so gamma rays are light... Travel at the same speed.
2006-09-01 16:17:58 · answer #3 · answered by Ken H 4 · 4⤊ 0⤋
no because gamma rays are just the same as light (Electromagnetic radiation) only with a higher frequency and shorter lambda. Speed it the same. v=lambda*f. lambda and f are changed but v remains the same.
2006-09-01 16:19:43 · answer #4 · answered by Bax 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
speed of light is a wrong name, it should be speed of an electromagnetic wave in vacuum
gamma rays and light are both electromagnetic waves, they have the same speed in vacuum.
Capito ?
2006-09-01 16:20:01 · answer #5 · answered by gjmb1960 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
No; they are photons, too. Their wavelengths are found to range from about 0.5 to 0.005 A.
2006-09-01 16:22:53 · answer #6 · answered by Sqdr 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋