why cant anything move faster than the speed of light?

Answer 1

This is because Einstein's equation - E=MC^2, says that travelling faster than the speed of light will require more energy than there is in the universe. This may be wrong, but it has held out so far.

However, scientists have recently discovered some particles which travel faster than the speed of light relative to someone standing still, but, because time slows down, if something was travelling that fast their sensors would say that they were not travelling at the speed of light.

Answer 2

My thought is that when the universe was created by the Big Bang the Universe began expanding outward (at the speed of light). If we were able to catch up with this expanditure (14 billion light years from the center), and tried to moved beyond that expanding, the "nothingness" would dissolve us in a way that we were not killed, but never were. It's an area that hasn't been created yet, and thus the universe MUST have a failsafe for such things. Like going backin time and meeting yourself. I don't think the Universe would allow that paradox.
As for the person awnsering. He said that in 50 years Einstein will be proven wrong. I seriously doubt that will ever happen. Whenever I hear news about Einstein, it's always relaying that computers are proving his equations (on a chalkboard no less!) correct 100 years later!

Answer 3

It's all down to E=MC 2.

The faster something moves, the more it's mass increases and the more energy it requires to propel it - until it reaches a point where it requires infinite energy, impossible in a finite universe.

But, that's not to say that there aren't already particles moving faster than light - for example, quarks may do. Also, as the universe went through it's inflationary period soon after the big bang, it's likely that eveyrthing was moving much faster than light then.

It's generally accepted though that no object of mass can ever accelerate past the speed of light.

Answer 4

perhaps we should split this question into two parts. i'll comment on matter and information separately.

Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity shows that as a particle's velocity approaches the speed of light, its mass increases without bound. We use the terms beta = v/c and gamma = sqrt(1-beta^2) in special relativity. near the speed of light, the mass behaves as

m (v) = m0 / gamma = m0 / sqrt(1-beta^2).

where m0 is the rest mass. As v->c then beta -> 1 so that gamma -> zero and m(v) -> infinity.

Now the problem is that to accelerate something, you need to apply a force given by F=ma. Because the mass increases as you get close to the speed of light, it becomes impossible to accelerate the particle using a finite force - in effect things can't reach the speed of light because they get too heavy.

The issue of information is somewhat different, and some researchers have demonstrated that you *can* transmit music at "super-luminal velocities". At first glance this appears to violate causality and special relativity, but it turns out that it is more of a tunnelling effect related to wave packets having a wide spread of energy - some components of the wavepacket do travel faster than light and *if* you can detect them, you can recover the signal.

I'm not sure what the current record is, but a few years ago there was a big hoo-haa in the scientific community when researchers managed to transmit some classical music the length of the their laboratory at super-luminal velocities. On reflection, it doesn't violate causality either - information on causality also exists in wave packets parts of which can travel faster than light too.

hth

Answer 5

I just asked this question, myself, not long ago. I figured if we can go past the speed of sound, why not light. I agree that maybe we just haven't figure it out yet, but light does move much, much faster than sound. Everything you see is light moving. Sound can happen, like in a thunderstorm with thunder claps, and we can see the lightening that causes the thunder sometimes a while before we hear the thunder. So light does move incredibly fast or there'd be a delay in everything you see like the way video phones work sometimes.

Answer 6

Pehaps there are entities that can move faster than any speeds of light in the Universe . However these entiies would not be of a mass structure as we observe in the Universe . They would have to be composed of a different structure other than mass.

My own deductions indicate tthat the bigger the mass is the slower it moves. And since light is the smaller micromass in the Universe ,then it would make sense to conclude that its the fastest moving mass of the Universe

Einstein had a hard time disproving the speed of telepathy as being faster than the speed of light.

In order to accelerate one micromass of light to the velocity of light, it takes aprox. 5 billion joules per seconds of Power.
If we were to apply that much power to the Space Shuttle it would disintegrate in less than one second. One micromass of light particle of Light moves with an Energy in accordance to the Henri Poincare equation E =Mf x C^2. where Mf is the Value of one light particle mass,and C is the speed of light as measured relative to the Earth.
There fore it is imposssible to accelerate any large mass structure to the velocity of light without breaking it to pieces.

Answer 7

the big bang happened at a speed faster than the speed of light

Answer 8

Who says it can't? All that is said is that anything which has a velocity less than that of light cannot achieve or exceed that of light. Nothing states that an object can't have and maintain a speed greater than that of light, having already had it. Meaning there can be objects which always are faster than that of light as long as they have always been faster than that of light.

Answer 9

Well according to Einsteins theory, nothing can go faster then the speed of light, but since that has never been able to be proven one way or the other yet, I think it remains to be seen if that theory will hold up to be true, say 50 years from now. What about thought? that is faster then the speed of light because it is instant. Think about it.

Answer 10

Some recent experiments have shown that under certain conditions, things can. e.g. 'Mach c'? Scientists observe sound traveling faster than the speed of light.

Try a Google search for a bunch more.