What supposedly happens when something goes faster than the speed of light?

Question

Einstein had several different theories about this didn't he?

Answer 1

Since you bring up Einstein, his postulate was that nothing can go faster than the speed of light -- it is the absolute maximum speed in the universe. Furthermore, anything with mass cannot reach the speed of light, as infinite energy would be required to attain the speed, not to mention infinite time slowing and infinite reduction in size.

Answer 2

No he didn't. Einstein had some things to say about the speed of light and the main ones are (1) that the speed of light is the same regardless of who measures it and (2) that no body with non-zero rest mass can travel at that speed. The first has been proved in many experiments some having to do with light being emitted from an elementary particle which is itself traveling at 99 percent the speed of light. The measured speed is still 186,000 miles per second. This seems to not make sense since if you are on a plane traveling at 500 miles an hour and throw a ball at 100 miles an hour in the direction the plane is going then to someone standing still outside the plane who measures the speed of the ball they will say it is going 600 miles an hour relative to themselves. This is simply adding velocities together in the way we are all used to. But just as quantum phenomena, which take place at very small scales of distance seem strange to us being the size we are so do relativistic phenomena which generally occur at very high speeds seem strange to us who have only experienced very slow speeds. One of these is that velocities do not simply add together. The actual formula, given in answer to another question, is (v1 + v2)/(1+v1*v2/c**2) where "c" is the speed of light. Since c is very large compared to the speeds we are used to v1*v2/c**2 is very very small in everyday life and can be ignored so you just get v1+v2., which we all recognize as being how you add two velocities. Now if v1 and v2 are very large, say 1/2 the speed of light, then v1*v2/c**2 becomes 1/4 and 1+v1*v2/c**2 equals 5/4, v1+v2 becomes c so the final velocity is 4c/5. Our usual way of doing this would have given c, the speed of light, since each velocity is 1/2 the speed of light. Now suppose one of these is the speed of light then: (c + v2)/(1+c*v2/c**2) = (c + v2)/(1 + v2/c) = c. So even if something could go the speed of light, no matter what it did, it could not give something a speed greater than the speed of light.
Now some guy years ago looked at m=m0/SQRT(1 - v**2/c**2), the formula that gives the mass m of a body of rest mass m0 when it is moving at some speed v, and said "hey, if something goes faster than light then 1-v**2/c**2 is negative and the square root is imaginary but if the body has imaginary rest mass then the imaginary stuff cancels out and I get a real number and real mass". Such a particle would always be moving faster than light. There is no evidence that any such particle or particles exist.
What this limiting speed also means is that no information can be transmitted at faster than the speed of light and this has led to some controversy. People have done experiments using quantum effects to transmit music at speeds faster than the speed of light. Others argue that they did not transmit meaningful information. I don't know how this was resolved or even if it has been.
Bottom line, find a book or a good web site that talks about relativity and do some reading. I wouldn't spend too much time speculating about traveling faster than the speed of light, or about tachyons, or worm holes, and other stuff like this. The real stuff is strange enough.

Think about this:
A = B
A*A = A*B
A*A - B*B = A*B - B*B
(A - B)(A + B) = B*(A - B) Factoring the terms
so A + B = B Dividing each side by (A - B)
and A + A = A or 1=2 Putting A in for B, what we started with

Answer 3

Einstein said, no particle can reach the speed of light. But if there are particles already above this barrier, they may continue to do so without damaging any physics law. Read below and also visit the source:

A tachyon is any hypothetical particle that travels at superluminal velocity.
The property of causality is a fundamental principle of theoretical particle physics; tachyons, if they existed, would not violate causality, even if they interacted with ordinary (time-like) matter[3]. Causality would be violated if a particle could send information into its own past, forming a so-called causal loop, leading to logical paradoxes such as the grandfather paradox. Tachyons are prevented from violating causality by the Feinberg reinterpretation principle[3] which states that a negative-energy tachyon sent back in time in an attempt to violate causality can always be reinterpreted as a positive-energy tachyon travelling forward in time. This is because observers cannot distinguish between the emission and absorption of tachyons. For a tachyon there is no distinction between the processes of emission and absorption, since there always exists a sub-light velocity reference frame shift that alters the temporal direction of the tachyon's world-line, which is not true for bradyons or photons. The attempt to detect a tachyon from the future (and violate causality) actually creates the same tachyon and sends it forward in time (which is causal). A tachyon detector will seem to register tachyons in every possible detection model; in reality the tachyon "detector" is spontaneously emitting tachyons. The effect of the reinterpretation principle on any tachyon "detector" is that any incoming

In there world, action precedes the cause. The bird will die first and then you will shoot later. Its fun to read about tachyons.

Answer 4

I do not know since we have not achieved that kind of speed even with radio waves and light. Albert Einstein developed a theory of relativity. In that theory, to simplify it, he argues that a as a body in space increases in speed relative to another body, it begins to decrease in mass in relation to the other body and it increases in density. The ultimate application of this is the so called black hole or a mass so dense that not even light can escape its gravitational pull. Yes, light is affected by gravity and Einstein proved this in 1921 during an eclipse. I suppose someday we (we?) someone will find out for exploration of the stars will take a speed considerably greater than the speed of light. Even at the speed of light, the light from the nearest star takes millions of years to reach us. .

Answer 5

Einstein's Theory of Relativity pointed that nothing can travel faster than speed of light. Now, supposedly you travel faster than speed of light: Mass, length, time and other such factors would become infinitely large and your existence will be meaningless... Or something like that...

If you can overcome this you can travel back and forth in time....

Answer 6

its said nothing goes faster then light..
i dont believe that..
einsteins states that light is realitive to the observer
meaning that its constant...
but if you were on a ship going that fast.. your time would
go on like normal.. but everthing else would speed up
meaning if you left earth and came back .. your age would be
on normal scale to the time you were gone and everyone on earth would have aged by factor of how fast you were traveling..
guessing.. if you left for one year at the speed of light
you left in 2007... it could be the your 2207 when you got back

Answer 7

in case you have been going at that velocity in a automobile, you're able to explode previously you even have been given to it. yet for the sake of mind's eye, it probably would not help - the fireplace and smoke made out of the automobile could demonstrate screen the full automobile like an asteroid.

Answer 8

one theroy is that going faster than lightspeed could slow time down .I myself think one would begin to be in various locations at once the whole while though they would be at the end of their journey

Answer 9

I did that once. I just completely disintegrated. Like Humpty Dumpty they were never able to effectively put me back together again.

Answer 10

you go backwards in time?


most likely your atoms will just explode and you will join the rest of the free floating carbon in the universe.


speed of light=stopped time

faster?