can anything go faster than the speed of light?

Answer 1

Yes. Some things can move faster then light.
One example is some distant galaxies, that are receding from us due to the universe expansion faster than light (BTW, contrary to a common misconception, we can still see them).
Another example is various kinds of things, that are not really "objects" in the sense, that they do not carry any energy or information. If you direct a light spot from a mirror to a wall, and start rotating the mirror, the spot on the wall will be moving with a speed, proportional to your distance from that wall. If you move really far away, the light spot on the wall can move faster than light. The "spots" from some distant quazars move on the surface on Earth with speeds several times greater then light.
There are some recent experiments, where a series of wave packets were sent through a medium with some exotic qualities, and some of the packets appeared on the receiving end faster than the speed of light. For reasons, too complicated to get into here, this effect belongs to the same category as the light spots from a moving mirror.

There are also some quantum effects, that, at least at first glance seem to be in violation with the "nothing moves faster than speed" rule, havign to do with the uncertainty principle. The currently accpeted explanation for those is that, again, similarly to the moving mirror case, no energy or information can be transferred this way.

Answer 2

According to the Special Theory of Relativity, nothing that was slower than the speed of light can go faster than the speed of light in a vacuum. That being said, here are some caveats:

1) The Special Theory of Relativity is right about a lot of things, and has been experimentally verified in many ways. However, it might not be right about all situations. Special Relativity may not be fully compatible with quantum mechanics and quantum gravity. There are various "extensions" to Special Relativity, such as "Doubly Special Relativity" that allow extremely high energy particles to go faster than the speed of light in a vacuum.

2) It's easy to go faster than the speed of light in a dense transparent material like water. This leads to Cherenkov radiation. But those particles are not going faster than the speed of light in a vacuum. The "faster than light" part is something of an engineering approximation, because the photons in the light are constantly getting absorbed and re-emitted by the material, and this slows them down. Nothing wierd here.

3) Tachyons. There are various theories involving particles that always are faster than light. It seems likely, however, that if such particles exist, they cannot actually interact with normal matter or there would be time and energy paradoxes.

4) Wormholes. These are unstable solutions to General Relativity that may or may not exist. If they existed, they might allow "tunnelling" through spacetime. This does not involve actual faster-than-light travel, it's just a shortcut through spacetime.

Answer 3

According to accepted theory nothing with mass can travel faster than the speed of light. However, the force of gravity 'acts' on objects faster than the speed of light. Think of it like this: An object falling from something at any height must start falling before you 'see' it falling no matter how near you are. Also, while it takes some minutes for light to travel from the sun to the Earth the force of gravity is always instantly and constantly acting between Earth and the Sun. One of the predicted as yet unseen particles is the Graviton which is thought to have zero mass and may be the means of 'transmitting' gravity.

Answer 4

For a while everyone thought the answer was no. It is starting to seem like a slight possibility today, but I really didn't understand the article I read about it.

Basically, the reason the answer has been thought to be no is that as something goes faster it loses mass, and at the speed of light it would have no mass--therefore only light and similar massless radiation can go that fast.

Answer 5

This topic will be debated for a long time.

But it is observed that some radiations happens faster than light speed.

So far there is no theory that proves the maximum speed being the speed of light. It is the misinterpretation of some theory by some is the cause of this dialog
Some people are quoting theories that does not apply at high speeds. But it is possible to go beyond the speed of light.

Answer 6

To explain a bit further on the quantum tunneling. Also known as "entanglement". Einstein called this phenomenon "spooky action at a distance".

Entangling a set of atoms, the counter parts can be seperated by any distance and the manipulation of one set will have an "immediate" effect on the other set, regardless of the distance. This experiment has been conducted with photon's as well as a large number of cesium atoms. While the atoms themselves are not traveling faster than light, the effect on the counter part is immediate and therefore appears to be faster than light.

This would be very significant in the development of quantum computers, enabling calculations to be done at extraordinary speeds.

It can also be used as a relay for long distance communication (like with space probes). It also is good for secured messages since there is no medium in which to intercept the message. And lastly, it's even been proposed as a method for energy transfer, by exciting one set of atoms in a satellite put closer to the sun, the energy can be transferred to the ground on earth and utilized.

Answer 7

Until today there is no evidence that something in Universe can travel faster than light.

A relative old theory (I am talking about twenty five years ago), postulated the existence of "tachions" as particles that go faster than photons (light quantums) but as far as I know this explanation is currently disregarded with the arrival of "superstrings theory".

Answer 8

The speed of light cannot be surpassed!
It is limited by a principal that gives us the universe that we perceive to-day.
If you divide one second in half, divide that half and the half after that eventually you will reach a point where it will not divide again the next division will rule it out of existense.somewhere about ten to the ninety-five toward zero.
But remember the first tick of time was a two dimentional entity, space-time.
First let us look at a photon. One of the parameters for the existense of a photon in space is velocity Which happens to be "C". remember it can be slowed but not accelerated. But why?
Well let us try an analogy.

We have a barrel full of ball bearings each one one thousands of an inch in diameter. If we take one ball and cut it in half it is now not a ball beraing.

O.K. we have a photon traveling through a dense medium,velocity less than "C",We take some ball bearings an say at any point in that medium the photon exists for a certain number of ball bearings as it enters a less dense medium it exists for a fewer number of ball bearings { pulses of time}
When the photon travels into space it exists for one pulse of time for each point in space.
To accelerate the photon it would have to exist in a point in space for a pulse a time that cannot exist.
Let us carry it a little bit further.
let us make the assumtion that if a photon does not exist it has no velocity.
when it comes into exiatense it must accelerate to "C". so for each point in space in this journey it exists for less and less pulses of time until it exists for one pulse of time per point in space. Because "C" is an incident the duration lasts for one pulse of time it cannot last for less.. Again the acceleration is a number of incidents that take less and less time.
But how long and how far? One cetimeter and one thirty-billionths of a second.
I hope this gives you an idea!

Answer 9

God-speed

Answer 10

yes