why can't anything go to and/or beyond 186,000 miles per hour except for light?

Answer 1

As you approach the speed of light time slows down relatively to stationary objects outside your frame of reference. Therefore, it quickly becomes impossible to generate enough force over/time to accelerate in relation to a stationary observer.

However, I believe it would still seem to you that you were moving faster and faster, but in reality time would be moving slower for you and faster for folks outside your spaceship.

btw light can't go faster than the speed of light :D

Although it can in some cases go faster than 186000 miles per second.

Answer 2

The short answer is:

We used to think that time and distance were not related to each other. In other words, we assumed that space was one thing; and time was something else; and that time passed at a certain rate that didn't depend on where you were looking at it from, and so on.

But now we know (since Einstein) that time and distance ARE related. A change in one always has some effect on the other.

And (at least in this universe), time and distance are related by the constant "c". Because of the relationship, if you want to move forward by 186,000 miles, you MUST also move forward by (at least) one second.

So, "c" is just an expression of the relationship between space and time.

Answer 3

This gets kind of weird, but we don't and can't know if any goes faster. Light is the fastest thing that we can perceive. By "perceive" I mean that which our senses can register objectively. You can't measure speed of thought because it is in your head; you have no external gauge with which to measure it by. I won't even begin to get into the subjectivity inherent in the perception of time, which gets even more unmeasurable when it is purely in your own mind. Let me put it this way: think about how you think. Do you think in words? Have you ever tried to share a thought with someone else -- not just a concept or idea, but the THOUGHT ITSELF? You cannot transmit your thoughts in the way that they occur to you let alone how fast they travel. So to measure speed, you have to have a perceiveable yardstick to measure it by. Since light is the fastest thing we can sense, anything faster than light can't hitch a ride with the light. The light will be too slow for it, and we won't know it's there. Mathematically something we may prove the existence of such a substance, but we will never first hand perceive it. Does that mean it doesn't exist? Can it be proven with its echoes? The falling in the forest makes no noise if noise is defined to be something that is heard, but it still makes the waves that are capable of being heard.
Can things go as fast as light? You still have the problem of perception of a object that gets there as soon as the light does. The same patch of light doesn't stay for long. Otherwise nothing would ever get dark. And even if you could discover that object it would be as elusive as light itself. Do you see light, or just sense its presence because you see the things, the desk and computer you're at right now for example, the light illuminates? Same with the other.

Answer 4

Lets say your on the highway, the speed limit is 65 mph an hour.
You want to go past this speed limit, but sadly your cars max speed is 65 mph.
If you exceed this limit your car will explode.
That's kinda of what happens to our brains when to try to break the light speed barrier.

But lets say your car can go over 65mph.
If it does, there fails to exist a velocity barrier, Aka a speed limit.
Therefore with no speed limit there could be a velocity of infinite. But this infinite speed would not need to travel, it would be in two places at once, this infinite speed is what we know as space/time. It is everywhere, because something with an infinite speed can not travel to one place from another it is just always there. So the speed of light falls undereth that speed giving us the possibility of travel.
Long theory short, good thing we have a speed limit.

Answer 5

Here is a simple, and accurate explanation.

Matter has mass. (Mass is similar to weight.)
Einstein's equations of relativity say that the faster something goes, then the more mass it has. (So, the faster it goes, the heavier it gets.) As it nears the speed of light, its mass approaches infinity, and it would take an infinite amount of energy to make it move faster. Since, the universe does not have an infinite amount of energy, nothing with mass can go faster than light.

There is a theory about particles with negative mass. They would always travel faster than light, but they could never go slower than light. Theory says they could exist, but we have never detected any.

Answer 6

Per second, not per hour. I think things can go faster. but you must specify speed with respect to something. What is your reference point?

Answer 7

It's actually per second- not per hour and theoretically of course, it would turn into pure energy itself.