Travelling faster than the speed of light on a bus!?

Question

Okay this is clearly impossible, but I'd like to know why:

If you managed to get a vehicle (let's say a bus) to travel at the speed of light and you were sitting at the back of the bus and needed to go to the loo; you'd get up, stroll down the bus and have not only had a poo but in the process you'd have managed to travel faster than the speed of light - quite a turd-trip.

I've posed the same question to my teachers and other inter-mal-ectual types and the closest thing I've got to a reasonable answer was; "you want to talk to Einstein, pal". (So very, very helpful)

So, can any of you geeks come up with the answer?

Just to clarify:

I know a bus isn't the best vehicle to reach light speed - It's a silly analogy - I know it'd never make it to that speed between stops. Please substitute with some other human sized container that could possibly make it.

Answer 1

May I suggest a hobby or joining a social club. Because if you spend your day thinking about poo-ing at the speed of light you need to add some dimension to your life.

Answer 2

Impossible because...

a) As you approach the speed of light your mass increases to the point where it is infinite at light speed. So you'd have two objects of infinite mass - you and the vehicle. Impossible.

b) If you surpassed light speed by walking down the bus, you would be of more than infinite mass, which is impossible in itself.

c) If had more than infinite mass you would be too heavy to get out of your seat, let alone walk. You'd probably punch a hole in the bottom of the bus and fall out.

d) When you hit light speed, time stops for the traveller. If you went faster, you'd end up in the past, where the bus was a few seconds ago, sitting on the tarmac. So you couldn't take that dump.

e) No-one could walk on a bus going that fast.

I suppose the increase in mass due to your movement would slow the the bus incrementally. Maybe if you managed to exceed light speed you'd cause a new big bang.

Answer 3

The bus *cannot* travel at the speed of light.

But suppose it was traveling (as measured by someone at the side of the road) at very nearly the speed of light. When you get up and walk forward, no matter how fast you walk, run, or gallop, the fellow standing on the side of the road NEVER measures you to go faster than c as you do it. One of the consequences of Relativity is that speeds do not add. At low speeds, adding them is pretty close, but even then it isn't perfect. Near the speed of light, speeds do not combine in a way that is anything like addition.

Get an elementary book on Relativity. It will explain all. I recommend "Space and Time in Special Relativity" by David Mermin.

Answer 4

To the rider on the bus, nothing has changed. The mass of the bus is the same, its length is the same, and time passes at the same rate as when at rest. Why? Because the v in the Lorentz transform L(v) = sqrt(1 - (v/c)^2) is relative to the framework the rider is in, i.e., the bus. And relative to the bus itself, the rider is not moving (when sitting on the loo).

All the relativity changes are relative to the observer (e.g., on Earth) outside the bus (the moving frame). And that's where the impossibilities occur. We cannot reach v = c, the light speed, because at L(v = c), mass becomes like infinity, time stops, and the length of the bus in the direction of travel becomes zero. Even so, if we could get to v = c, your trip would go on as normal because you are at rest (or nearly so) wrt the bus itself.

Answer 5

Yes. If the vehicle suddenly comes to an abrupt stop, you will keep on travelling at the speed of light plus the momentum you generated when you were travelling to the loo inside the bus unless you are restricted by another force possibly friction.

Answer 6

Just because we don't know of any way to go faster than light, doesn't mean it's not possible. When you approach the speed of light, time goes slower. When you go faster than light, time goes backwards.

Walking down the bus to go to the loo would have mind bending consequences- you may find that, instead of taking a poo, you actually spit out the food you had in your belly back into the container you got them out from. The bus drops you back off where it picked you up, and, as your belly is now empty, you go off to get some more food... or something...

Answer 7

If the bus were travelling at the speed of light, then from the point of view of someone standing at the side of the road, it's length would be zero, due to Lorenz contraction. Consequently, from their point of view, your movement inside the bus would not appear to happen, both the bus and yourself would be travelling at the speed of light relative to the observer. From your own point of view nothing would be unusual inside the bus, but the person standing at the side of the road would appear infinitely thin.

Answer 8

Nice question. The answer is no.

This is similar to the question if a fly flying in a moving train travels at a faster speed than train. It may be based on ground as the reference but it is not going anywhere. This is because it is still part of train system.

A person jogging at 20 miles per hour inside a train moving at 60 miles per hour is travelling only at 20 miles per hour. If he joggs outside the train (running paralel on track) than he can claim 80 miles/hr if he moves faster than train.

This analogy is difficult to comprehend., but it is true.

Answer 9

I share countless your questions. the excellent bang is an enigma, no? If each and all of the mass contained interior the universe replace into contained in a singularity, it ought to have been the main ideal black hollow, and that's particularly complicated to substantiate how or why it would desire to swap into risky. the strengthen of the early universe, if an identical easily policies that each physique human beings know utilized then, might desire to have been slower than the correct cost of light. And contained interior the early universe, if each and all of the subject replace into contained in one among those small quantity of section, why did it now no longer act as a black hollow and draw each and each little element back into itself? extra beneficial, there is a few hypothesis that the correct cost of strengthen of the universe is extremely increasing. if it quite is so, then what's the clarification or mechanism for one among those phenomenon? besides the indisputable fact that, the comprehensive universe, as all of us know it, might desire to be the main ideal black hollow, despite if it does not act like one. the optimum acceleration as count concepts the variety horizon of a black hollow is the correct cost of light. in case you have been prestige on the variety horizon of a black hollow, the common waves must be so bent by using the gravity there so which you need to be waiting to substantiate the back of your own head one circumference away!

Answer 10

I think you have a valid point there, but maybe too much info?