2007-03-06 11:23:42 · 11 answers · asked by KELLY S 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Einstein mathematically determined in 1905 that time is as relative to the observer as space is. The faster you move relative in a particular frame of reference, the slower time gets. This effect is called time dilation. Photons of light do not experience the passage of time at all. the universe is a very strange place!
Einstein also demonstrated that as matter approaches the speed of light, it will increase in mass. Thus the closer you get to the speed of light, the more energy you will need to keep accelerating. As you approach light speed, your mass will become infinite, and you will need an infinite amount of energy to accelerate. Thus it is impossible to actually reach the speed of light if you have mass. Light is composed of EM radiation that has no mass.
While Einstein's work was only theoretical, subsequent experiments with spacecraft, orbiting sattelites, and high energy particle accelerators have confirmed his mathematics, and no evidence has yet emerged to suggest that he was wrong. His treatise on special and general relativity has resulted in many technological advances as well as an improvement of our understanding of the universe.
Due to the effects of time dilation, if you were to accelerate to near light speed, a constant acceleration of 1G for example, you could cross the known universe within a single human lifetime, but when you returned to earth, 10 billion years would have elapsed on Earth.
2007-03-06 11:59:21 · answer #1 · answered by Graham S 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Because for an object to travel at the speed of light, it must have 0 invariant (or rest) mass which can be easily calculated from the equations of special relativity. So photons have 0 rest mass. Anything else going faster than light will have an imaginary rest mass.
So you can see why the speed of light in a vacuum has to be the "ultimate speed". It is actually more complicated than this because this doesn't exactly rule out the posibility of particles whose velocity at the time they were created were faster than the speed of light such as the hypothetical tachyons.
2007-03-06 13:44:59 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Many many 100's of experiments. The data from the experiments makes sense only if the speed of light (in vacuum) is the top speed.
It's not just they they have not found any material thing traveling faster than light. It is also that they can measure the mass of things going faster and faster, and the mass approaches infinity as the speed gets closer to light speed.
2007-03-06 11:55:39 · answer #3 · answered by morningfoxnorth 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A nice experiment that showed this was when scientists took a proton, and tried to accelerate it by applying more & more electromagnetic energy. What happened is that its speed would not go above c (the speed of light). Instead, the effective mass of the proton kept increasing as energy was added, proving also that E=mc2. No matter how much energy was added, they couldn't push it pass c. As aside, there are no known particles that move faster than light in a vacuum. Tachyons are purely speculative & many physicists consider them impossible. Ordinary particles can go faster than light, but not in a vacuum.
2007-03-06 11:56:57 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋
Nothing with mass can travel at the speed of light. it has been proven that as an object approaches the speed of light it's mass increases. At the speed of light your mass would be infinity and the entire universe would get sucked into you. OUCH I hate it when that happens
2007-03-06 11:50:49 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Cause it has been experimentally been proven to be. In fact nothing can add up to the speed of light, it always stays the same.
2007-03-06 11:28:16 · answer #6 · answered by Stephen Dedalus 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Small masses travel faster that macromasses .The corpuscule of light been so small ;they couldnt find anything much smaller ,hence its the fastest moving mass in the Universe.
2007-03-06 11:58:44 · answer #7 · answered by goring 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The speed of light is the fastest thing that humans can conceive of right now. I think of it as the next threshold. We also know about neutrinos and quarks that quiite probably move faster than the speed of light- but we cant say for certain at this point in time.
2007-03-06 11:29:20 · answer #8 · answered by MrWiz 4 · 1⤊ 4⤋
because lite is the fastest thing we know, but i think dimensional gates or worm hole's would be a much more efficient way to go. that is if ya can figure out how to get back and forth in one piece
2007-03-07 04:01:56 · answer #9 · answered by michael_6446 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
do scientist really think that speed of light is top speed?.. I don;t think so... maybe it's the limit that we are trying to reach but have not due to it's impossible to reach if it's base of einstein equation... we need some more genius to comeout with something that defy einstein theory
2007-03-06 12:09:53 · answer #10 · answered by fooleong_chong 2 · 0⤊ 4⤋