and you keep going faster and faster.... being without gravity, etc... would you eventually reach the speed of light?
2007-03-27 20:50:31 · 7 answers · asked by Josh 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Nothing with mass, like rocket ships, can get up to the speed of light. As you start getting closer and closer to the speed of light the mass of your rocket increases which means you need more energy to make it go faster, and going faster increases your mass even more. Finally you would reach a point where your mass would be nearly infinite (..all the mass in the universe..) and it would take infinite energy (..all the energy in the universe..) to get up to the speed of light. Sounds weird, but Einstein came up with the theory and it's been proven over and over again that mass does truly increase the faster an object moves.
2007-03-28 00:35:54 · answer #1 · answered by Chug-a-Lug 7 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Simply put, NO.
A constant thrust will give you a time versus position curve that is a hyperbola with the speed of light as a limiting velocity which is never reached.
2007-03-28 08:25:12 · answer #2 · answered by mathematician 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
"braxton_paul" has it right. As the velocity of the ship increases, its mass increases. You can approach the speed of light asymptotically, but you can never get there.
2007-03-28 22:55:34 · answer #3 · answered by Otis F 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It has to keep increasing in thrust.
2007-03-28 07:36:56 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
yes, if you reach the certain speed that light travels which is 299,792,458 metres per second.
2007-03-28 07:59:00 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
um,theoretically yes say some.
but near light travelling isnt so easy.
but it is difficult to imagine such a situation.
2007-03-28 06:36:56 · answer #6 · answered by prey of viper 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
i think so.
2007-03-28 08:53:19 · answer #7 · answered by neutron 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋