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i searched for a thread but i found none on this subject specifically..if there is one i'm sorry mods

but what are ur thoughts on travelin at the speed of light? will it ever be acheived? or is it just another thing that is out of our grasp

traveling at those speeds ..there's somethin about how u wont age as fast when u go the speed of light but i can't remember what it is..anybody know?

probably something about time being relative....

I can't speak for what scientific advancments will come about in hundreds of years, much less tomorrow. But the limitations of travel at teh speed of light has to do with our mass, and the mass of any vehicle we were using to get to our destination. Light is tiny particles of radiation. It's hard to imagine organic matter traveling at that speed with out disintegrating. So, the most probable question of travelling at light speed would likely be some technology akin to transporters from star trek, where organic particles are dematerialized, transported, and then reassembled into their original pattern.

Yea...I was thinkin that too..

thanks everyone for ur comments

The speed of light = 299,792,458 m/s, do you really think any human could cope with that speed?

speed of light travel IS possible. Light manages to do it.

It is possible to have a particle decay into various other particles and release a photon. THerefore, some of the mass-energy of the original particle has been turned into light.
Light travels at the speed of light (by definition).
Therefore, a part of the original particle has managed to achieve light-speed

Didn't Einstein prove that light speed is imposable?

Simple. We will never EVER travel at the speed of light. It's too ahead of our time and will always be. Light isn't human therefore it can haver this speed because it has it's energy for awhile and not till way later it looses it. We don't have that kind of energy because it is utterly impossible for our bodies to get that but with light everything is different, It's not a body it's a source that was made to be beyond our physical powers, It's a part of science and science is something that works totally different then us because it's not real and someone can't make another human have this because their not some machine but light isn't human. I'm a little confused about what I'm saying. I couldn't put this into better words so I probably sound dumb but I'm only a kid so it's not that embarrasing.

I agree with Filmmaker451.

And on a side note, it was not put badly at all.

Originally posted by Filth
Didn't Einstein prove that light speed is imposable?
Well, light manages to do it quite easily

Like albert said


"Nothing gose faster than the light"
BUUUUUUUT

Its would be very impressive if travel that fast. If we had the tecnoledgy like the alians have, the world will never be the same

All, that we need is anti-gravity.

Even if we thought it possible to go the speed of light. It would take a couple hundred years of constant acceleration for a ship to get to that speed due to the fact that the human body can only take so much acceleration at once. Not to mention we would need to find a fuel source that would last long enough to get us there. It won't happen. unless of course we did find a way to negate gravity.... but since we still haven't really figured gravity out (the source of it really) we can't do it. I still found it intregueing that theoritcally if someone threw a grain of sand just right it would orbit you (of course only if there were no other forces acting upon it *cough* the earth's gravitational pull). Well thats my 2C

I have this science magazine that says that travel in speed of light is possible in 2100.

Basic theory of relativity stuff. If you were to accelerate to the speed of light your mass would become infinite.

speaking in terms of physics based on general reletivity and quantum affects, when things gain a certain velocity their mass increases, very very little at lower speeds but more n more as they get closer to the speed of light, at the speed of light, the mass of any particle that has a mass initially would be infinite{AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT, NOT OVER IT}, so to accelerate anythin to the speed of light, you would have to apply a force of INFINITE, n THAS where the problem lyes, nuthin can produce an infinitely large force, not even the energy the entire universe. well that the things anyway, and only light can travel at lightspeeds cause its particles{photons} dont posses the property known as MASS, which means that they can aquire the speed of light with even the smallest possible force, but since things have mass, theyd need an infiinitely large force to accelerate their infinitely large mass to lightspeed. thas the basic theory anyway

but i admit that im not exactly as knowledgeble as to be able to understand the literally millions of advanced theoretical physics theories that are beein discovered theses days, eg, space warping, space compression, energy constriction, resonating fields, quantum foam warping etc. so there probably will be a theory in the near future that lets us travel at or above lightspeed.

The Omega explained it all about 10 posts back. We can theoritcally go faster than the speed of light by bending space. Its hard to explain but this might help.

Think of point A and B. Point A is one side of a peice of paper and point B is the other. Instead of just going rite along the paper to the other side u bend it in the middle so the opposite sides r much much closer to each other. I hope u can sort of understand wat im saying. This should be possible someday, far be it for me to say when.

it might also be possible to travel at lightspeeds at EXTREMELY small lengths{where quantum foam forms}, secondly bending space is not exactly an idea that i believe can be discovered in our lifetimes.

Light manages to travel at the speed of light, and its possible to create light. So that means that its possible to create something that travells at the speed of light

Originally posted by Magee
The Omega explained it all about 10 posts back. We can theoritcally go faster than the speed of light by bending space. Its hard to explain but this might help.

Think of point A and B. Point A is one side of a peice of paper and point B is the other. Instead of just going rite along the paper to the other side u bend it in the middle so the opposite sides r much much closer to each other. I hope u can sort of understand wat im saying. This should be possible someday, far be it for me to say when.

I'm pretty sure the Human race will have wiped itself out before then...

Originally posted by eleveninches
Light manages to travel at the speed of light, and its possible to create light. So that means that its possible to create something that travells at the speed of light

but light doesn't have a mass... it is impossible to make something with a mass travel at light speed...

Originally posted by Shadwofathought
Even if we thought it possible to go the speed of light. It would take a couple hundred years of constant acceleration for a ship to get to that speed due to the fact that the human body can only take so much acceleration at once. Not to mention we would need to find a fuel source that would last long enough to get us there. It won't happen. unless of course we did find a way to negate gravity.... but since we still haven't really figured gravity out (the source of it really) we can't do it. I still found it intregueing that theoritcally if someone threw a grain of sand just right it would orbit you (of course only if there were no other forces acting upon it *cough* the earth's gravitational pull). Well thats my 2C

Theres always solar enegry wich in space it is very plentful

Originally posted by DeVi| D0do

but light doesn't have a mass... it is impossible to make something with a mass travel at light speed...

Actually it does..It takes up space so it has mass..I doudt we'll eva move at the speed of light but scientist say it is 'possible' to teleport through wormholes

no ketchuptome light is made up of photons which take up space but do NOT have the property of particles called MASS, photons are massles just like many other particles like gravitons.
n eleven intches, the only thing we can make that travels at lightspeed is photons{light} or magnatism{virtual photons}

Most likely. Because it will probably be hundreads of yrs before we can even understand how it works.

Yea. They designed a space probe which has a massive solar 'parachute' which reflects solar energy which gradually builds up the speed of the craft. Theoreticaly it is possible for it to go 10% the speed of light.

Eleveninches u have to understand that light has no mass which is the only reason why it can go so fast (light speed lol). Nothing could ever go at that speed as it would need an infinte amount of energy, which is impossible

Originally posted by Ketchuptome
Actually it does..It takes up space so it has mass..I doudt we'll eva move at the speed of light but scientist say it is 'possible' to teleport through wormholes Actually, thats a hotly debated topic. Many people argue that youwould just be pulled to the center of the wormhole.

To teleport through a wormhole you would need a massive force to push you out the other blackhole.

Center of a wormhole? I think you'll be crushed because of the gravity

We would need a photon generator...

worm holes and black holes are different how exactly? i used to keep up on this stuff now i'm lost..
where's omega when u need her?

Who??

Einstein didnt say that nothing can travel at the speed of light. He said that nothing can accellerate to the speed of light.

It might be possible to get to 0. 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
9999999999999999999999999999999999999999 the speed of light, and then perform a quantum jump to get over 1.0 times the pseed of light, as there would be an uncertainty in your speed, meaning that you could partially be travelling faster than the speed of light

ok, locally we cannot travel at the speed of light, it would require an infant amount of energy (which is not possible). and the laws of general relativity disallow us to travel at C. thus no LOCALLY we cannot.

HOWEVER

by using space time it is possible to travel at speeds as fast or greater then that of light.

this is generally called the "warp drive" by modern physicists. this is not star trek, or is it?

the general principal in ST remains the key. by using some sort of negative energy (negative energy densities) it might be possible to bend space time in-front of the "spaceship" this would leave the ship locally unmoving. and thus it would not violate Einsteins laws. basically u bend or "warp" space time in-front and behind an object. this encompasses it in a local area of spaetime. since space time moves at C then it is possible for the ship to move at C without actually moving at all, technically. ur using space time to move you or "surf" rather then actualy propelling ur ship at C

a good (but a bit physics heavy read) is miguel alcubierre's "The Warp Drive - Hyperfast travel within general relativity"

if you want a better explanation of the warp drive.

Black Hole: These r created when a sun reaches its last dyin breath. Instead of exploding as a supernova it implodes into one point of singularity where even light cant escape as the gravity is so strong. You wouldnt want to be any where near these things lol.

Worm Hole: These r loops in space which r exactly like worm holes that worms make lol, so its like a short cut through space. But these things dont stay open, infact i think they only open for milliseconds at a time.

Excuse the non scientific explanations, i suck at explaining things

Originally posted by Magee
Black Hole: These r created when a sun reaches its last dyin breath. Instead of exploding as a supernova it implodes into one point of singularity where even light cant escape as the gravity is so strong. You wouldnt want to be any where near these things lol.

Worm Hole: These r loops in space which r exactly like worm holes that worms make lol, so its like a short cut through space. But these things dont stay open, infact i think they only open for milliseconds at a time.

Excuse the non scientific explanations, i suck at explaining things

Are there evidence supporting your arguement or are these just your theory?

Thats actually a pretty accurate explanation

You see like most people i didnt just go and type black holes and wormholes in a search engine, so i dont have a website to back me up. I just know the difference between the two. Trust me I like to think i know wat im talking about in this subject.

hey evryone her is an awser,

it depends , traveling at the speed of light RELITIVE TO WHAT,
they are planets moving away from our solar system and almost double the speed of light, and snother thing, y would you want to go to the speed of light...
here r some reasons y you wouldn't want to go to the speed of light

1. at infinite mass you wouldn't ever b able to stop
2. going that fast would cause agelessness but you also would be stuck in that moment for ever you in a sense would be concous
3. And at infinite mass you would cause infinite gravity meaning objects would start you accelerate towards you at the speed of light causing the collapse of the universe and a big crush

so in otherwords its a pointless purpose that will destroy the universe

I though the speed of light is constant no matter what point of view you are in. (I think this is where special relativity comes into it)

That's what I was taught in Physics anyway...

I thought the point of travelling at the speed of light was to travel back in time... or is it forwards? yeah, the theory is that the closer to lightspeed (c) you get the more time slows down around you. So the people and the world around you would be aging faster than you, and in a sense you would be travelling forward in time.

Basically it will never happen because nothing (that has a mass) can be accelerated to 300000000m/s. The only thing that can do this is light which has no mass. Nothing massive will be able to sustain the enourmous amounts of force and friction caused by this type of acceleration.

yes, as said locally travelling at C is not "technically" possible.
you would need to warp spacetime to do so.

as i said to read further into this check out
http://www.karba.ch/physik/startrek/warp.pdf

its PDF.

well this is a dead thread

Travelling at the speed of light was only ever thought of when we found out how big the universe was. It was also considered for space exploration. If we could travel at light speed we could get to our nearest solar system in one year. But light speed would'nt even allow us to travel our own glaxay, never mind the 100s of millions of other ones as our galaxy is estimated to be about a billion light yrs accross. Which is why scientists have started sugesting warp drive, bending space and wormholes etc. They r all much better and even more plausible than light speed.

Why do people say it is impossible to travel at the speed of light.
Light manages to do it all of the time.

And FYI, einstein didnt say it was impossible to travel AT the speed of light. He said that it was impossible to ACCELLERATE to the speed of light. He said nothing about things already travelling at the speed of light.

...?

well the only reason you cant "accelerate" towards that speed of light is because your mass increases towards infinity so you can get eniugh energy to reach it

but what about things that have always been at the speed of light.???


----------

also:
If you get to 0. 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
99999999999999 c , then there is still a finite uncertainty of your speed, so the uncertainty of your speed could be greater than the difference between your speed and the speed of light

this "travelling at light speed" locally is a pointless topic...

you cannot travel at C locally, its not possible within the realm of physics...

warping space-time or a kind of singularity in space-time are the only ways to achieve it...

Earlier in this thread there was a link posted to an abstract entitled, The Warp Drive: Hyper-Fast Travel Within General Relativity.

I am not allowed to post links, since I am new to this forum. I found The Warp Drive website by searching on Google for the title of the article.

It is very interesting, but unfortunately I cannot do the math.

Originally posted by eleveninches
but what about things that have always been at the speed of light.???


----------

also:
If you get to 0. 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
99999999999999 c , then there is still a finite uncertainty of your speed, so the uncertainty of your speed could be greater than the difference between your speed and the speed of light

All you would do is add 9s after your last 9.

The speed of light has not only been acheived (by light itself) but exceeded. At the point of the Big Bang, the universe was expanding at FAR in excess of lightspeed. Hawking/Penrose also showed how particles could escape black holes on the quantum level, which requires faster-than-light travel.

I'm not sure if that invalidates the time travel theorists, but it seems to debunk it on a common sense level (though dealing with astrophysics is rarely intuitive).

Originally posted by DigiMark007
The speed of light has not only been acheived (by light itself) but exceeded. At the point of the Big Bang, the universe was expanding at FAR in excess of lightspeed. Hawking/Penrose also showed how particles could escape black holes on the quantum level, which requires faster-than-light travel.

I'm not sure if that invalidates the time travel theorists, but it seems to debunk it on a common sense level (though dealing with astrophysics is rarely intuitive).

Things without mass could travel at the speed of light.

The universe did inflate faster then the speed of light in the early universe, but the laws that control the universal speed limit were not in place then. The four forces of nature where all together in the beginning, and when gravity separated, the universe inflated faster then light. However, the other 3 forces where still combined.

Originally posted by Shakyamunison
Things without mass could travel at the speed of light.

The universe did inflate faster then the speed of light in the early universe, but the laws that control the universal speed limit were not in place then. The four forces of nature where all together in the beginning, and when gravity separated, the universe inflated faster then light. However, the other 3 forces where still combined.

Rock! I knew there were rational explanations for those, but I had forgotten them.

Light is mad slow...186,000 mp/second...please


Silver Surfer can go faster than that shit

Originally posted by SpearofDestiny
Light is mad slow...186,000 mp/second...please


Silver Surfer can go faster than that shit

Fiction does travel faster then light.

Originally posted by Shakyamunison
Fiction does travel faster then light.



Prove to me that Silver Surfer is not Real

Originally posted by SpearofDestiny
Prove to me that Silver Surfer is not Real

Sure, no problem, JIA.

Originally posted by Filmmaker451
Simple. We will never EVER travel at the speed of light. It's too ahead of our time and will always be. Light isn't human therefore it can haver this speed because it has it's energy for awhile and not till way later it looses it. We don't have that kind of energy because it is utterly impossible for our bodies to get that but with light everything is different, It's not a body it's a source that was made to be beyond our physical powers, It's a part of science and science is something that works totally different then us because it's not real and someone can't make another human have this because their not some machine but light isn't human. I'm a little confused about what I'm saying. I couldn't put this into better words so I probably sound dumb but I'm only a kid so it's not that embarrasing.

that was quite possibly the most nonsensical statement i have ever heard. I lol'd hard.
reminded me of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww

we have a better chance of worm holing places before we travel at the speed of light

I always had this idea of making constructs out of light that can store information. Let the light travel to a certain place, encoded with the information to construct life (human or otherwise) or even just to relay messages. All life needs to continue is something that can replicate itself (like our genes do that drive our construction and reproduction), and replicating, information-storing light entities would have a better chance at survival and expansion than we do since we're only relegated to one planet.

Of course, this would require the ability to maintain coherence to a light structure without some vessel to hold it in (which wouldn't survive lightspeed travel). So that's where the science falls apart utterly.

My answer to that was to have a space station that shoots a light beam out into space, with a specific destination, with the information encoded directly into the pattern of lightwaves that it sent. The pattern would repeat itself continually, so that if parts of the signal are lost among residual radiation signatures or hit space debris, the pattern won't be lost. Like a cpu progam on a repeating loop, but written into light beam patterns.

Then the signal could transmit as long as we're here on earth to upkeep the station.

Still complete nonsense, but my musings are fun diversions for me at least.

isn't is speculated that if items are moving faster then the speed of light then time itself would start to revert???

Also I doesn't think traveling with the speed of light is a way to explore distant star systems, creating a wormhole would be a easier way of transport in theory.

hmm.. i guess i didnt read that thoroughly enough to understand. what it would when the signal got its destination? ima bit confused

Originally posted by DigiMark007
I always had this idea of making constructs out of light that can store information. Let the light travel to a certain place, encoded with the information to construct life (human or otherwise) or even just to relay messages. All life needs to continue is something that can replicate itself (like our genes do that drive our construction and reproduction), and replicating, information-storing light entities would have a better chance at survival and expansion than we do since we're only relegated to one planet.

Of course, this would require the ability to maintain coherence to a light structure without some vessel to hold it in (which wouldn't survive lightspeed travel). So that's where the science falls apart utterly.

My answer to that was to have a space station that shoots a light beam out into space, with a specific destination, with the information encoded directly into the pattern of lightwaves that it sent. The pattern would repeat itself continually, so that if parts of the signal are lost among residual radiation signatures or hit space debris, the pattern won't be lost. Like a cpu progam on a repeating loop, but written into light beam patterns.

Then the signal could transmit as long as we're here on earth to upkeep the station.

Still complete nonsense, but my musings are fun diversions for me at least.

Originally posted by Kumar
that was quite possibly the most nonsensical statement i have ever heard. I lol'd hard.
reminded me of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww

This post that makes you laugh was from a kid, trying his best I presume. Don't you feel a little low life, laughing at a kid? Give him a break.

As of right now, we cannot travel at the speed of light, this is what I believe, because would we not die from the impact of speed? However, perhaps someday that may change.

Originally posted by Cornlady
As of right now, we cannot travel at the speed of light, this is what I believe, because would we not die from the impact of speed? However, perhaps someday that may change.

You are close to being right. The reason people can not travel at the speed of light is because the closer that person would get to light speed, the greater their mass becomes (think of it like they become heavier), and eventually, they become infinitely massive- which keeps them from reaching light speed. Light itself HAS no mass, so it CAN go that fast.

I hope I explained it for you... I cut a few corner science-wise to do it, but it's essentially the answer.

Originally posted by Cap'n Happy
You are close to being right. The reason people can not travel at the speed of light is because the closer that person would get to light speed, the greater their mass becomes (think of it like they become heavier), and eventually, they become infinitely massive- which keeps them from reaching light speed. Light itself HAS no mass, so it CAN go that fast.

I hope I explained it for you... I cut a few corner science-wise to do it, but it's essentially the answer.

I don't seem to be aware of the part of infinite mass.

Originally posted by Cap'n Happy
Light itself HAS no mass, so it CAN go that fast.


I would usually let that statement go without pouncing on it because that is true in practice.

but you are using it to imply that mass can never go the speed of light...at all. Like it might as well be a law of physics. Light has mass, bro.

Originally posted by DigiMark007
I always had this idea of making constructs out of light that can store information. Let the light travel to a certain place, encoded with the information to construct life (human or otherwise) or even just to relay messages. All life needs to continue is something that can replicate itself (like our genes do that drive our construction and reproduction), and replicating, information-storing light entities would have a better chance at survival and expansion than we do since we're only relegated to one planet.

Of course, this would require the ability to maintain coherence to a light structure without some vessel to hold it in (which wouldn't survive lightspeed travel). So that's where the science falls apart utterly.

My answer to that was to have a space station that shoots a light beam out into space, with a specific destination, with the information encoded directly into the pattern of lightwaves that it sent. The pattern would repeat itself continually, so that if parts of the signal are lost among residual radiation signatures or hit space debris, the pattern won't be lost. Like a cpu progam on a repeating loop, but written into light beam patterns.

Then the signal could transmit as long as we're here on earth to upkeep the station.

Still complete nonsense, but my musings are fun diversions for me at least.

You want to holographically encode a really big virus? That's not terribly unrealistic.