If you travel faster than the speed of light....?

Question

If you travel faster than the speed of light, will you be able to see anything? Or will it just be dark?

Answer 1

As you get closer to the speed of light, times slows down. Only energy can go the speed of light, but not faster. The speed of light is relative, so if you went 99.99% of the speed of light, light would move away fom you at the speed of light.

Answer 2

Sound is the vibration of molecules and therefore needs a media to travel through - with sound this media is the vibration of particles or molecules (which have mass) and therefore cannot travel at the speed of light due to Einstein's theory of relativity. Light has no mass and is an Electromagnetic wave - it does display some properties that particles have, yet it does not have to have a medium to travel in - this is proven by the fact we see the sun yet the light has to travel through space (which is a vacuum). NB... Steve C is incorrect, light has no mass but has energy and momentum according to the the equation-: Energy = Plank Constant x Frequency. i.e. the higher the frequency the more energy and momentum it carries. Light (or photons of the EM spectrum) are the carriers of the electromagnetic force which can interact with matter transferring energy between them. Read about the Photoelectric effect and Compton scattering for more details. No-one knows for sure how gravity fits into the picture, it has been postulated that gravity is carried by an entity called the 'gravitron' but as yet it has not been found - it is also said that whatever carries the gravitational force must travel at the speed of light. If somebody discovers the 'gravitational carrier', there is no doubt there will be a nobel prize for them, as this will complete what is known as the 'standard model' in physics.

Answer 3

The speed of light is as fast as it gets, there is no faster than. You could try asking if you were to travel "at" the speed of light what would you see? Don't know what that would be though.

Answer 4

There is no answer to that question. The situation is impossible as you can't travel faster than the speed of light.

Answer 5

According to Einstein, you cannot travel faster than the speed of light. (Although in theory, there are subatomic particles called tachyons which supposedly do travel faster than light. The objects believed to be at the edges of the known universe, quasars, are also thought to move faster than light.)

It is believed that the closer you are to travelling the speed of light, the more your vision would become focused...like tunnel vision. As you approach the speed of light, the tunnel would become smaller.

I remember seeing an old episode of Nova with Carl Sagan theorizing this very phenomena.

Answer 6

Travelling faster than the speed of light is impossible according to the theory of relativity. However we can imagine a frame of reference which travels faster than speed of light. In such a frame, we will see time changing backward. Of course we will be able to see things but the sequence of events will be opposite.

Answer 7

Well, you can't travel faster than the speed of light, the laws of physics prevents it, but I'm sure you already knew that. You would be able to see stuff in the direction you were heading, but nothing else, also, people wouldn't be able to see you coming.

Answer 8

You would catch up to old light. Meaning that you would be seeing the past.
You would travel through time. That is the basis for time travel: going faster than the speed of light.

(Though it is generally accepted that something with mass cannot travel faster than the speed of light since, in easy to understand terms, mass increases the closer you travel to the speed of light. But light has mass you'll say.. yeah well the theory has holes. which is why it has yet to be proven that you cannot travel faster than the speed of light)

Answer 9

There is nothing wrong with theoretical questions its just people who get confused also get frustrated...

When you see things it is photons breaking apart molecules in your rod and cone cells in your eye - this takes a specific amount of energy (we cant see radio waves or gamma rays) so if you change the relative impact speed, and thus energy, of the photons hitting your eye they will become 'invisible'.

But since light would probably be travelling in all directions at least some of the photons would be visible - but you would see some weird things like light travelling perpendicular to you (which would normally be out of the corner of your eye and invisible) would seem infront and this would be from left and right up and down.

Answer 10

Any answer to this question would have to be a guess, since according to Albert Einstein, travel at speeds faster than light is impossible. This article from "Research Penn State" suggests some possibilities: http://www.rps.psu.edu/probing/light.html

This article from Virginia Tech describes some of the paradoxes that would happen if faster-than-light-speed travel happened (and it has several diagrams and visuals): http://www.phys.vt.edu/~takeuchi/relativity/notes/section10.html