I was just wondering... Do you think it is possible that one day in a few thousands of years.. A person might discover compounds from another planet and bring them back to earth. And after they find them, they discover a new element and with the element they find, they make a new metal that can tolerate the power of speed of light. And with this metal, they could make the first plane, that goes so fast that it warps and you do not even see it anymore because it is traveling so fast..(example: You watch a fan go around or a tire spin and it goes so fast that virtually it looks like a solid abject or disappears). Do you think one day this will happen? like in 10,000 years maybe? And if it goes that fast, will you go thorugh a warp? What happens when you travel faster than the speed of light?
2007-01-14 04:25:08 · 4 answers · asked by christina 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
So far as we know at this time, it is not possible to exceed the speed of light. Furthermore, the closer you come to matching the speed of light, the more energy is required to accelerate further. This is because the closer to the speed of light you get, the more the mass of the object increases. Thus the famous equation:
E= m c^2 where E is the energy required, m is the mass of the object, c is the velocity of light (roughly 186k miles per second)
To make a long story short, it ends up taking infinite energy to drive an object of any mass at all (even small particles) to the speed of light.
2007-01-14 04:48:31 · answer #1 · answered by David W 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Interesting question. We won't have to travel to a planet around another star to see what is made of though - we can do that from here. In fact, a new generation of huge telescopes are already being planned that will be able to image and do spectrographs of planets around other nearby stars. A spectrograph tells what elements and compounds are in the atmosphere and on the surface of a planet. If we find oxygen and chlorophyll in the spectrograph we have found life! It will happen in the next 30 years or less so you get to know.
2007-01-14 12:34:01 · answer #2 · answered by Michael da Man 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I believe we will one day in the future be able to fly at the speed of light. However, not by the absurd theory you propose. It will probably be of a more rational nature and through great diligence and scientific findings. Not go on another planet (oh wow coincidence) and then bring a metal (oh thats there too?) and then make a plane with it (wow, already?) and then and then...please, more rationality...
2007-01-14 12:51:54 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
believe it or not, we are closer to the speed of light than you might think. in 70 years I heard there will be commercial space travel, and that in 150-200 years we will be able to travel almost farther than our solar system in a short time.
2007-01-14 13:09:22 · answer #4 · answered by Brayan 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋