Would time slow down or stand still?
2007-02-17 09:45:32 · 16 answers · asked by spamalot 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
If you know it's not possible, why did you ask? : )
The short answer is no one knows for sure.
The answer involves Einstien's Special Theory of Relativity. Time slows down as you approach the speed of light. But your mass increases, and you size decreases. You need more and more energy to cause the acceleration to light speed, but get less and less because of the mass increase. At 99% of c (light speed), time would be very, v e r y s l o w.
Scientists are currently looking for theoretical particles called tachyons which move faster than light, but even slower or equal to it.
Skylor Williams
2007-02-17 10:01:12 · answer #1 · answered by skylor_williams 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
At the speed of light, time dialation is total so the trip for someone traveling that fast is instantaneous regardless of distance.
When we measure the speed of light there is a limit to its speed. However, that is partly because we are measuring it using our time which to us is normal. A beam of light we say takes 8 minutes to reach earth, but to the light, the trip is over as soon as it starts. So, even in theory, we can't as light travelers go faster than than light, because we can't get there any faster than instantly. So maybe the answer about getting there before you start makes the most sense in the context of your question.
2007-02-17 17:58:27 · answer #2 · answered by Red Jed 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can't travel faster than the speed of light- it's impossible.. but i think i read somewhere that there is a way to alter the speed of light, but i think it's theoretical.
I'm pretty sure they use this method in star trek- 'the warp field' A bubble is created around a spaceship where the laws of physics are slightly different- the speed of light is faster and harder to reach and therefore enables the ship to travel faster than the speed of light in the real universe around it.
2007-02-18 05:28:08 · answer #3 · answered by Tom J 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You would get to where you were going before you left. If you travelled faster than light, you would get home before your mother and father were born, which would of course make you illegitimate. So don't even go there!
If you travelled faster than the speed of light (Einstein said you cannot) you would not see anything ahead of you, because effectively, everything would be behind you. Now I've gone and given myself a headache, and it's all your fault!
2007-02-17 17:59:37 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
sorry people to say but we can go faster than the speed of light we can reduce it down to 38mph, if you were to travel faser than this you would be able to see only from the point of creating the barrier, otherwise if the imagenable happened that we could move faster than the speed of light depending on how fast you go you would see different shades of light because the different rays in a light moves at different speeds.
2007-02-18 07:14:54 · answer #5 · answered by Tony H 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
With any measurement there are 3 requirement to be met. The reference in travel and to points of reference to travel between. If the start point and end point are points along a time line and travel is measured as a distance between point along that time line in a linear travel, than travel would remain constant as "forward" along said time line. From the perspective of measurement out side the reference of travel at the speed of light travel would be instantaneous in perception.
To arrive before the initial time reference, travel forward would be measured as a negative number. Moving rearward along the time line would be negative forward travel. Negative speed means a reduction in measured speed. Therefore the travel speed would be less than the speed of light.
Time dilation is the perception arrived by the reference of travel. From the point of being the object of travel the only apparent measurement is in relation to the beginning and ending points of any measurement. If both ending and beginning points of measurement occur at the same point along the line of measure that there is no perception of distance. If the is any measurable distance between points of measurement than the is a perceivable distance.
2007-02-19 10:23:45 · answer #6 · answered by Skeeter 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Depends on how fast you travel. You will see time going backward like that of a movie in reverse playback. There will be no such thing as causality.
For detailed explanation see the cool link:
http://www.phys.vt.edu/~takeuchi/relativity/notes/section10.html
Cheers.
2007-02-17 17:52:09 · answer #7 · answered by Dalilur R 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because it's not possible under any circumstances - then how can there be any answer to that, hypothetical or otherwise? We'd have to go into the realm of science fiction where anything whatsoever could happen.
2007-02-18 07:58:48 · answer #8 · answered by Hello Dave 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Watch the second episode of Red Dwarf: "Future Echoes"
2007-02-17 17:47:19 · answer #9 · answered by SS4 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Einstein asked himself what if you were in a car travelling at light speed and you put the headlights on. apparently the light (energy) will turn into mass..............E=mc2
2007-02-17 22:34:50 · answer #10 · answered by bolters37 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋