Why is the speed of light the limit?

Question

I know what the speed of light is, I know all variety of scientists say it's the limit that anything can travel. I want to know...in layman's terms...WHY the speed of light is the limit? Dumb it down for me. Thanks!

Answer 1

Basically is because time and distance actually change as things move faster. A bullet fired at 500 MPH from a car driving 100 MPH would pass a person standing still at 600 MPH, but that is only because 600MPH is far too slow to distort time and distance for either of the people observing the bullet. If the car was driving 180,000 miles per second and the bullet was fired at 180,000 miles per second, the person standing still would see the bullet passing him at 185,900 miles per second (using the colinear velocities formula in the source) and not 360,000 miles per second, while the person in the car sees it pulling out ahead of the car at 180,000 miles per second and not the 5,900 miles per second that the person standing still might think. It is because time and distance for the driver fool him into thinking the bullet goes faster. Either that or it fools the stationary person into thinking it is going slower. It is all relative. The only thing is relativity that is absolute is the speed of light itself, everything else distorts to keep the speed of light absolute. It is a trick the universe is playing on us and not anything to do with our lack of power or weak engines. In theory, even with infinite power, nothing can ever be seen to go faster than light.

Answer 2

It's not a limit, the speed as measured by an observer that light travels at, is a constant, regardless of the speed of the observer. What this means can not be put into simple terms...
Example: the old question, Your driving a car at the speed of light and turn on the headlights, the light would appear normal to you, traveling at 186,000mps regardless that you are traveling at that speed (theoretical of coarse), not doubled.
This opens the can of worms of what exactly reality is, do we actually move through time/space, or influence the quantum potentials that make up the construct of time/space.
Particles of matter seem to respond to the influence of the observer, meaning the universe is putting on a show, just for us!

Answer 3

In simple dumbed down layman's terms here it is: any object has mass (often thought of as 'weight'). This "mass" is actually "rest mass", that is the mass an object has at rest. When an object moves, it has MORE mass. It has the rest mass (the mass it had at rest) plus the mass that is equivalent to its momentum (this is what is meant by the equation E = M * C squared). The mass of the object's movement is not static like its rest mass, it changes. The faster the object goes the greater its mass of momentum. In order to move something at a greater speed (accelerate it) you need more energy. Makes sense? But when you increase it's speed, you also increase it's mass, so now in order to move it faster you need even more energy since it is 'heavier'. See where this is going? As you approach the speed of light, the mass of an object increases to infinity. An infinite mass would require an infinite amout of energy to accelerate it. So there is the limit. There isn't "infinite energy" in the universe, there is no way to increase the speed of an object (space ship) to that speed (light speed). See it now?

Answer 4

For some reason it is easier to believe there is an absolute minimum temperature - like, I have never heard anybody ask, "Why can't something be colder than absolute zero?" In my mind, though, both limits are similar in that both the speed of light and absolute zero occur when physical limitations are reached.

Maybe the reason we have such a hard time believing the speed of light cannot be exceeded is because our feeble brains look at this question in a linear way, but the universe does not appear to be linear. Maybe going from .5c to .75c is the same as going from .75c to .875c, since in both cases the difference to the speed of light is cut by half. Thinking about the question in this non-linear way, you can be repeatedly doubling your speed while asymptotically approaching c.

Answer 5

The answer is found in the physics trilogy which is: E = mc2, m = E/c2, and c2 = E/m. The first two equations describe energy and mass as being formed of the value of "c2", which value you are interested in. It is this value that we are totally composed of by means of electromagnetic energy forming our existence. This is evidenced when a high energy photon enters near the center of an atom and is formed into a negative and positive electron pair. The electromagnetic energy becomes tiny bits of matter, which matter then forms larger neutrons and protons. Having been formed into mass, the value of "c" does not diminish, but remains constant. It is for this reason all physical events within our universe move from the present to the past at the same rate of speed. The value of "c2" describes how long present time exists before it no longer is present time but becomes that of the past. "c2" is the only true, physical value of our universe, but its duration is of such short value the mankind has never actually directly experienced physical reality.

There are some short, easy to read time concepts at http://360.yahoo.com/noddarc that may interest you. One in particular is "Concepts Concerning Time, Gravity, and Energy"

Answer 6

the fee of sunshine is continuous relative to something. In a vacuum, any length of this is going to arise with the comparable answer, no rely how or the place you do it. evidently that area can improve quicker than the fee of sunshine, and has carried out so at circumstances contained in the previous. the right history of the upward push of area isn't conventional. whether the upward push is presently accelerating (as some think of), that doesn't inevitably advise that it will in some unspecified time contained sooner or later improve on the fee of sunshine.

Answer 7

It turns out to not be a limit, but a barrier that we haven't figured out how to pass. Scientists have supposedly shown that there are particles travelling faster than the speed of light but that they can't slow below it. I think the why is twofold, we haven't been able to demonstrate except mathematically that anything is moving faster than the speed of light and we haven't figured out how to make something go faster. That square root of a negative number may be the culprit in all this.

Answer 8

According to anything travelling to the speed of light converts into energy

Answer 9

Look up the Lorentz transform if you need more info. To accelerate to the speed of light requires an infinite amount of energy. It's just not available.

Answer 10

E = mc2 .... from this famous Einstein equation and his Special Theory of Relativity we have that nothing could travel faster than the speed of light. Any object moving near the speed of light increase in its mass that much to approach infinity mass if reached light speed and it require infinite amount of energy to accelerate to the speed of light.