For example if a craft capable of traveling faster than the speed of light left earth and made a one year outbound journey and a one year return journey to earth, what year and/or century would the crew return to?
2006-12-29 05:08:36 · 14 answers · asked by ironbed 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
The year would be 2008 with reference to todays date.
2006-12-29 05:13:21 · answer #1 · answered by Wabbit 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It would take an infinite amount of energy to reach the speed of light, so that is an impossibility. Since you can't reach the speed of light you cannot exceed the speed of light -- so your question becomes moot.
Even if you could somehow travel faster than c, you would continue traveling into the future. But since you would be traveling faster than light waves and radio waves and such, you would encounter older and older transmissions from Earth (assuming you're flying away from Earth, of course) and in that sense you would seem to be traveling into the past.
As far as the round-trip travel is concerned, the time dilation would depend on the speed they are traveling. If they are traveling 10% of the speed of light, the clocks on Earth would be 1% faster than the clocks on the spacecraft; if they were traveling 50% of c the clocks on Earth would be 25% faster, and at around 99.99% of c the Earth clocks would be many, many times faster and centuries could elapse on Earth for every year on the spacecraft.
2006-12-29 05:14:30 · answer #2 · answered by poorcocoboiboi 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As you approach the speed of light, the dimension of the universe in front of you contracts from your point of view, approaching a length of zero as your speed approaches c. That means that you will already be at your destination as soon as you leave! If you want to tavel into the future, the key is to travel at extremely SLOW speeds. So if you leave the Earth and travel in a very slow spaceship, 50 years outbound and 50 years back, you will arrive 100 years in the future!
2006-12-29 05:27:01 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You cannot go faster than the speed of light. But you can travel into the future by going slower than the speed of light. For example, if you traveled to Alpha Centauri and back at near the speed of light, it would seem like a few hours to you, but 8 years would have passed here on Earth!
2006-12-29 05:12:55 · answer #4 · answered by amateur_mathemagician 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You may get better answers if you posted the question under the "Physics" heading but I will take a shot at this "Gedankenexperimente".
If imaginary numbers are used in the equation then it is possible to exceed the speed of light. In fact (theory), it is IMPOSSIBLE to travel BELOW the speed of light. So with that "minor" detail out of the way, at the speed of light you would experience zero time passage so there seems to be no way to calculate a year aboard your vehicle. Let's say instead that you are travelling at 90% of light speed; in this case you will have found that after a year aboard your ship about 3 yrs have passed on earth, for travelling at this speed you would experience time passage at 31% of normal time. Now let's say that you have achieved or exceeded light speed and could calculate a year aboard your vessel, you will return to earth 1 yr in the future. Now instead of calculating time aboard your ship, imagine you travelled to the nearest star. In that case upon completion of your round trip you will return to earth in the year 2015.
2006-12-29 08:35:02 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The same theory that says traveling at high speed changes time also says no material object can travel faster than light, or even as fast as light.
So, no, you cannot travel back in time by flying through space really fast because:
If you accept the theory as correctly predicting the time changes then you have to accept the whole theory, which includes the impossibility of traveling that fast.
or
If you reject the theory that travel faster than light is impossible, then you have to reject the whole theory, which includes the part about time changing at high speed.
2006-12-29 05:14:09 · answer #6 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Travelling at the speed of light is possible, but were working with a set of basic theories. Remember there just theories, put there so we can try to make sense of everything we see. Do you think the theory of relativity is still going to be valid in 10 000 years?
2006-12-29 05:40:39 · answer #7 · answered by Jerry 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
mass = initial mass / square root of ( 1- v^2/c^2)
When v ---> c the quantity v^2/c^2 ---> 1 so 1 -v^2/c^2 ---->0
Then the square root ----> 0. As the denominator approaches 0, mass increases without bound (what people like to call infinity). As the mass increases, the energy it takes to move it increases. For mass to go the speed of light, the energy would need to be infinite.
2006-12-29 05:18:57 · answer #8 · answered by smartprimate 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
well from what I under stand if travel faster than the seed of light you will grow into the future.
Per Einstien it is impossible for any plant to reproduce faster than the seed light.
2006-12-29 05:16:28 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, you would not implode.
jdb1729 is correct. However, if one COULD travel faster than light, one would go BACK in time, not forward.
2006-12-29 05:15:48 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋