Scientists, mainly cosmoligists, say that matter cannot travel at a speed faster than that of light. why does light travel at the EXACT speed that matter can travel as fast as? Also, what i think, is that since time slows down the faster than you go, in other wordsa the speed of light, that light experiences no time, so if you did go that fast, you wouldnt age. another thing is could it be that light tries to travel faster, at infinite KPH, but it can't because of the speed it has reached. can someone pleasen explain this to me?
2007-12-09 12:20:47 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Because there's nothing holding light back. It (classically) has no mass, and therefore is not affected by friction. There's nothing to stop it from traveling at the ultimate speed limit.
You're right - if YOU were traveling at the speed of light, time would simply stop for you. You'd never age - you'd never do anything.
2007-12-09 12:30:32 · answer #1 · answered by eri 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I agree with you that for light time must come to a halt, and in addition, space would be foreshortened to zero distance, so there's no space or time for light at all! In that sense it is as if it's going infinite speed already (well, sort of).
The reason matter can't go the speed of light is that it would need infinite energy. There's no mechanism for giving matter an infinite amount of energy. If you restrict yourself to playing with really tiny particles, however, you can get them going pretty darn close to c.
Your question has me wondering whether relativity actually requires something physical to travel at the limiting speed c or not. How would things be different if there still were a limiting speed but *nothing* moved that fast? Something to ponder...
2007-12-09 20:54:15 · answer #2 · answered by Steve H 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Its hard to explain quickly here.
The speed of light in a vacuum is the speed of all electromagnetic radiation, including visible light, in a vacuum. More generally, it is the speed of anything having zero rest mass. It is a fundamental constant in the universe.
An object with greater than zero rest mass (such as a rock or person) can't reach the speed of light - the faster the mass travels the more massive it becomes (Einstein shows that in his special theory of relativity).
And Einstein also showed that time slows down the closer you get to the speed of light (so if you could travel close to that speed you would not age as quickly as someone that stayed on Earth).
2007-12-09 20:35:17 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
E=mc^2 where energy and mass are relative and c^2 is absolute. This means we have always existed and will always be. In addition, if something travels at less than c^2 it becomes trapped in time and subject to limitations and relativity.
2007-12-09 22:48:04 · answer #4 · answered by Q M 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋