the speed of light is 186,000 m/s. Why can't you go 186,001 or more?

Question

i'm not undestanding einstein's equation very well. Can someone explain this in a simple manner or provide a website that can?

Answer 1

Nothing is stopping you from going faster than the speed of light. The limitation is that you cannot go *at* the speed of light.

Since we have no way to go faster than light without first reaching the speed of light, you can't get there from here.

The limit comes from the equation for relativistic mass - which goes to infinity if your velocity is exactly c. If you go faster than that, your mass actually begins to decrease again.

Clearly the Einstein equations cannot accurately describe what happens at or beyond the speed of light. Whether this is actually the case (your mass goes to infinity) or if the equations simply require further refinement to be able to handle the superluminal domain remains to be seen.

Answer 2

This is a question of energy. The equation for energy is

E^2=(p*c)^2+(m*c^2)^2

where p is the momentum given by

p=gamma*v*m

where

gamma=1/sqrt(1-v^2/c^2)

and c is the speed of light and v the velocity of object mass m. Physicists that deal with relativistic quantities do not say that the mass increases as an object's relative speed increases because in the object's rest frame the mass is still m, we instead use the relativistic momentum given above. But from the equations above, as v increases to c, gamma goes to infinity. Thus p goes to infinity and E goes to infinity. This means it would take an infinite amount of energy to accelerate an object from some velocity less than c to c.

Answer 3

Let me break it down for you. When you throw a ball, the faster it travels, and the harder you throw it, the harder it hits the object you're aiming at. This is because the faster it goes, the higher its mass is. So, if you take a heavier ball, it will be harder for you to throw it at the same speed, because we all know that heavier objects take more force for them to accelerate. The speed of light is basically a point at which you are travelling so fast that your mass is infinite, and this causes problems, because like the ball, the mass that has been added by the speed is also infinite, so that the object can't possibly accelerate any more.

Answer 4

Einstein _postulated_ the speed of light in a vacuum to be constant.

A postulate is something taken to be true without proof. The proof, if any, is provided by consistency and validation of theories derived from and including the postulate. So far, those have held up well.

Still, the fixed speed of light in a vacuum is simply assumed to be true.

Answer 5

Well as you travel closer to the speed of light time actually slows down for you. So i guess you could say if you ever got to the speed of light that you would not age. To understand how you can't get to the speed of light you have to think of what light is made up of. Light is made up of Photons(which are particles with no mass). In order to reach the speed of light you would have to have no mass. Everything we know of has mass.(Except light). So really there is not way of breaking the speed of light.

Answer 6

186,000 is approximate. Nothing we are aware of, at this time, travels faster than light waves. Can we go faster? Possibly, but its theoretical and beyond our capabilities. Energy necessary required to move mass increases with speed. Simple as I can explain it.

Answer 7

well, maybe this helps.

kenetic energy=mass times velocity(squared)
velocity = mass times kenetic energy.

so light travels at a particular speed say "u" m/s
light has no or maybe very very very small mass.
then,the kinetic energy light possess will be infinitely small and small.

to travel beyond that, you either have to have a bigger amount of energy than light possess plus having something of smaller mass than light , or you have infinite amount of energy and blast yourself off. why infinite amount of energy? cause if you do the maths, you will need to have energy/mass same as 186000(squred) and that will be 34596000000. so if your weight is 600N, your mass is 60kg, then the energy you need to apply is 34596000000 times 60 which is 2075760000000 joules of energy.
haha, i am still 16 and dont know whether you can get that amount of energy, but if u can get that kind of energy, congratulations, you have broken einstein theory and you found yourself the ultimate age-preventing machine

But all this is because of what einstein says and the formulae he gave. whether it is indeed impossible to travel beyond speed of light will be heavily dependant on whether
kenetic energy= mass times velocity(squared)

Well, you can wait for me to grow up or you can start proving einstein's formulae is wrong, but until then gather your energy

Answer 8

I think it has something to do with time, the closer you get to the speed of light, time slows down for you. Time would stop at the speed of light, so going faster is kind of a catch-22 as far as time is concerned. Hell, i dont know.

Answer 9

As your speed approaches the speed of light your mass increases. As your mass increases the force required to accelerate increases as well. At the speed of light your mass equals infinite and time stops.

Think about it, If your mass is infinity then your gravtational pull will be infinity and the entire universe will be sucked into you.

Answer 10

the faster you get the heavier you get. By the time you made it to the speed of light, you would be squashed goo in the back of the space ship.