is it possible to travel faster than the speed of light and if so?

Question

why havent we done it yet?

Will we never know if there is life in another universe unless we can do this?

Answer 1

It is possible to move objects at or near to the speed of light, 186,000 feet per second, but to do it you need a particle accelerator and they are not cheap.

Answer 2

Einstein says not. As the speed of anything increases so does its mass/. At the speed of light the mass of an object would be greater than the universe and would be unable to travel any faster... One of rhs basic laws of physics. No you will never know the answers with purely physical speed as the means of travel.... Needs some of the means in science fiction like time travel or different parallel dimensions.

Answer 3

Nothing can travel faster than light because it would take an infinite amount of energy to move a mass at the speed of light due to the increase in mass of an object as it approaches the speed of light. That is why we haven't done it yet. As for other universes, you are in the realms of science fiction here. The universe, by definition is all there is, so there can't really be another.

Answer 4

Prior to the publication of the Special Theory of Relativity in 1905, the answer to the question would have been yes. However, Albert Einstein's theory placed a universal upper limit to the speed that a massless particle can attain - namely the speed of light. Hence, the answer to your question is that it is not possible to travel faster than the speed of light! Furthermore, objects, such as spacecraft accelerating towards light speed will gain mass and thus inertia as they approach (say) 90% of the speed of light. The gain in mass by massive objects means that it becomes harder and harder for them to accelerate due to their increasing inertia. The harder it is to accelerate an object (F=ma) due to an increasing mass, means that more and more energy is required to maintain the acceleration. In fact, a massive object would have infinite mass and kinetic energy at the speed of light. Hence, we cannot achieve the speed of light!

However, there may just be a 'loop-hole', we can only accelerate towards the speed of light within the universe but if we can step-out-side (Look up the American physics theorist Kip Thorne) via a 'worm-hole' then we can almost instantaneously move around the universe. Unfortunately, at present, such ideas are confined to abstract mathematical theories involving stable negative quantum and gravitational energies. Many science fiction shows, such as Star Trek and Star Gate have explored some of the ideas behind the above theories.

To summarise, the answer to your question is no!
Beam me up Scottie.

Answer 5

Thus far, the speed of light is a speed limit of the known universe.

Current research around black holes suggests that it may be possible to "bend" time and space, thus achieving the effect of travelling at the speed of light without actually reaching that velocity.

Discovery of other life forms in the universe is not dependent on travelling at, or beyond, the speed of light, however, having a speed limit narrows the field of possible search..

Einstein - and others since - theorised that speeds in excess of the speed of light could occur as it is known that some objects in the universe travel at above half the speed of light. If two such objects travel away from one another, the relative speed of their seperation would be in excess of the speed of light.

We have not achieved a velocity above the speed of light yet because we do not fully understand the nature of light itself and how mass relates to it. Since everything we would want to transport is an object of mass, gravity seems to prevent us from doing so.

That's the basics.

Answer 6

According to special relativity no information can be transmitted faster than the speed of light. This doesn't mean you can't go faster than light (well c actually) rather there is no benefit in doing so.

As far as using black holes go there are several problems:

1: There are none nearby
2: If we made one , for example in the LHC, it would evaporate very rapidly.
3: Anything falling into a black holes loses it's identity, so although it is possible to get the energy that went in back, it contains no information. Hence you can't use black holes to transmit information faster that c.

Note: buggerlugs_mctwattyknickers's is wrong in the belief that velocities are add. They are not. It might appear so but this is not the case.

Answer 7

The speed of limit for anything with mass is true; if something has mass while at rest it cannot pass the speed of light.

There is some speculation that there are particles, tachyons, that move faster then the speed of light but can not decelerate to below the speed of light. They were first proposed in the 1960's and may not exist at all but are used to balance some equations. If they do exist they can not transfer information above the speed of light anyway.

Answer 8

It is a fundamental rule of physics that nothing can accelerate to a speed faster than light. It is looking likely that there are certain particles that are already travelling faster than light - but it seems that light speed (c) is a bit like a bridge that' impassable from either side: if you're going slower you can go faster, if you're going faster you can't go slower.

So the upshot is that no matter how techologically advanced we become, we'll never be able to go that fast.

It doesn't necessarily mean that we'll never know whether or not any other life exists because, hopefully we'll be able to hear them one day - but it's very unlikely we'll ever be able to visit them (or them us). Unless we discover wormholes, but that's a different issue.

Answer 9

good q. boney.
if you travel faster than light you are into time travel into the past up to light speed the future.
but getting to these speeds is rather difficult at present.
but not impossible..
as there is no such word.
no doubt I'll get a lot of Thumbs down for that statement..
but in the 18th century saying going to the moon was a death sentence.
Captain James t kirk used a tri corder which is now a mobile phone..
my horse Say's all this..I just listen..

Answer 10

According to the Theory of Relativity it is impossible to travel at more than the speed of light as it would take more than an infinite amount of energy.

But Relativity is just a theory whcih works at the moement. You never know it mar be proved to be wrong. And then it may be possible to travel at more than the speed of light.

The people who want to believe in ET will be hoping that there is a way round it otherwisde interstellar travel will be all but impossible.

Answer 11

It's not possible to travel faster than the speed of light.
We don't have the technology to approach 1/10 the speed of light.
And, by the way, this IS the only Universe.