2007-09-20 08:53:10 · 25 answers · asked by Conspicuously Inconspicuous 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Yeah, my mother-in-laws gob!!!!
And her tongue is sharper than a shard of glass!!!
2007-09-20 09:01:13 · answer #1 · answered by niccilicci 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yes: light is (just under) 300,000,000 metres per second - there is a speed 500,000,000 m/s but we can never get to that speed because of the principles Einstein laid out in his theory of Special Relativity:
As you get nearer the speed of light space and time get squashed in the direction you're travelling. The amount of 'squash' we feel at 'slow speeds' (almost everything we as humans have ever used - under 3,000,000 m/s) is so tiny we don't notice it, but as you get to 90% the speed of light the squash is so much that the physical size of an object decreases. The density of the object travelling this fast can't change so its mass gets greater and greater. Obviously the heavier something is, the harder it is to move faster - as you reach 99.999999% the speed of light the amount of energy needed to get you that extra tiny bit of speed is so unbelievably huge you actually can't go any faster.
Scientists have speculated that you can see the speed of light as a barrier, rather than a limit: so if you were to have a particle that travels *faster* than the speed of light, it would just never be able to go slower than the speed of light (which makes it very hard for us to figure out if there is anything like that out there - when you travel faster than the speed of light time doesn't work in the same way, it's like timing a train as it goes past you where the last carriage goes past before the first...)
Hope that helps!
2007-09-20 09:15:28 · answer #2 · answered by JP 1 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Yes
~3 x 10^8 m/s = speed of light
8 x 10^8 m/s = faster than the speed of light
Not that there is any substance than is known about that can travel this speed.
The question should be, is the anything that can travel faster than light!
2007-09-20 13:42:02 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yes, but if there was any record of anything actually moving faster than the speed of light then we haven't recorded it. So, to answer your question, yes, but nothing that we know of has or does yet.
On an interesting side note, scientists have recently theorized why people in the Old Testament of the bible lived so long. They think that a long time ago, the universe was much smaller, meaning light traveled slower than it does now. This would of course mean that the speed of light is gaining speed and is directly proportionate to the size of the universe. Because light traveled slowly, and because of the facts revealed by the theory of relativity (Energy=mass*speed of light squared), this means that time periods were shorter in the long distant past. This means that people actually aged slower.
Edit: And to the person who said fly at the speed of light and turn your lights on, if you were traveling faster than the speed of light, the light you saw would actually appear behind you, as the light does not serve as a movable object and no outward forces are acting upon the light to propel it forward.
2007-09-20 09:04:43 · answer #4 · answered by Anthony K 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
No.
Don't get too focussed on the speed of light, it is actually the speed of massless particles of which the best known example is light. It is tricky to explain because you will try and visualise it but relativity just does not visualise correctly. Anything with mass can never get to the speed of light because it would take an infinite time and infinite energy to get there. Anything with zero mass can only move at the speed of light while in a vacuum (ignoring moving through matter because that is far too complex). While moving at the speed of light times does not exist so a photon (particle of light) does not experience time.
2007-09-21 13:03:31 · answer #5 · answered by m.paley 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes, there is a speed faster than the speed of light, but the question is can anything travel that fast?
As I understand them laws of physics don't state that nothing can move faster than light, only that something that slower than the speed of light can't accurate to the speed of light because, the mass of the object increase towards infinity as it gets nearer the speed of light. However if something is already going faster than the speed of light that's different.
Hypothetical particles called Tachyons have been proposed by scientists which do travel faster that light. Its up to you to decide if they exist.
2007-09-20 20:49:45 · answer #6 · answered by number one fighting chicken 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
If you're asking if anything can go faster than c - the speed of light in a vacuum, then as far as we can tell, no, however light moves more slowly if it's moving through something such as water or glass or diamond because the photons of the light are getting absorbed and re-emitted by the atoms of whatever substance they are moving through which imparts some delay. This makes it possible for particles within the substance to move faster than the light moves through the substance.
From a frame of reference outside of two objects, it is possible for two objects to move away from each other at a rate that is faster than the speed of light if they are moving away from the observer in opposite directions at more than half the speed of light, however from the frame of reference of either of the objects, the relative speed of the other object is still limited to the speed of light....
it boggles the mind, doesn't it?
also:
as was mentioned elsewhere, the speed of an object affects the passage of time within its frame of reference.. what that means is that within the frame of reference of my two theoretical objects moving away from me at over 1/2 c, time would slow down enough so that its opposing object would be moving away at less than the speed of light from its point of view.
2007-09-20 09:14:05 · answer #7 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes the minds eye can go anywhere quicker than the speed of light the minds eye can go back millions of years in a split second light cannot.light has not reached anywhere in the Universe yet in conjunction to the size of it .we will never know the 10,000 dollar questions .we cannot contemplate it makes a mockery of these so called silly theories of I know I have a Theory it started like this Bang 5Min's to 12 on a Saturday afternoon .Still they know no better I think the Universe started in a biscuit tin this no more silly than other ideas .but I didn't say how large the tin was.Now If I get the calculations going that will give the answer.1tin =200.000 smaller tins times 1% of the universe +5% of the empty space put that none matter in the 1st tin you have a complete 1st tin with nothing at all conplete emptiness .then this cause,s a big bang I rest my case here we all are to prove it
2007-09-21 08:53:51 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Substitute v>c in the LT for mass and you get an imaginary mass. Substitute this in the rel. energy equn E^2=p^2*c^2+m^2*c^4
and you get a negative energy. So if particles exist that travel faster than light, they actually gain/lose energy as they decelerate/accelerate. Travel at the speed of light for a massive object requires both infinite energy and infinite mass. Looks like you could approach c from both sides while not actually reaching it.
Bit like absolute zero really, where although negative abs temps exist, zero itself is unreachable
2007-09-20 11:52:17 · answer #9 · answered by alienfiend1 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no there is nothing faster than the speed of light, at least i dont think
2007-09-20 09:01:08 · answer #10 · answered by Tazz 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
speed of light plus one
2007-09-20 08:58:12 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋