since the universe is expanding at the speed of light and its said that its getting faster and faster,does that mean that the speed of light is increasing with it?
212992
A couple of years ago there was a study that said that the speed of light is not a constant. I need to look it up and see if I can find it. Now I'm wondering what the reason was behind that claim.\n\nYep, I found it:\nhttp://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6092
556925
The only thing that can travel at the speed of light is light. So basically yes.
303300
Just one doubt about your  theory,how do you know that only one big bang has taken place as you say that a second one is coming up???And tell me how you would accelerate something to the speed of light as the mass would become infinite.\nAnd according to your theory the total energy in the universe will go on increasing.You are stuck in a viscious circle!!!
46156
Here's the flaw in your logic. You think that the universe has to be in something else to expand. The Universe is literally being created more and more. By this I mean the volume of real estate in reality is growing. There doesn't have to be something else that it's growing within. It sets it's own barriers and those barriers mark the current circumference of existence.\nBy the way, science does not respect theories. It respects laws.
132035
Think of this\nwhen it comes to space the constant thing is the speed of light. Speed is the TIME it takes something to travel set distance.\nAt the moment we are moving through space. An hour ago we were a few hundred thousand miles from where we are now. If you were sitting still where we were a few hous ago, you would be slightly older than us.\nThis is because the constant thing in space is the speed of light. As we get closer to the speed of light either time gets smaller or distance gets smaller.\n\nIf this does not seem possible, just think of a unit of time as one vibration of an atom. Go faster, atoms vibrates slower, your time is therefore slower than some one who is still. (this is a metaphor people can comprehend, not quantum fact)\n\nSo question 1. Light is travelling at speed of light. Time and space do whatever they have to do to accomodate this.\n\nQ2 No, see Q1. You also would no be strong enough to throw the ball\n\nQ3. The closer one gets there first. just like anything else.\n\nQ4. What fuel? It would accelerate exponentially as the mass decreased. Top speed comes dowon to rates of accelerate, motor efficiency, drag, ect. Then as you got really fast your mass increases. Mass increases (again I'll use a compehendable metaphor and not quantum physics) because distance decreases, things are closer together, denser, heavier. Then your rate of fuel consumption would increase exponetially and your velocity would barely change. Then you'd run out of fuel
578595
It doesn't make sense that "everything contained in [the universe] is imploding in on itself". First, no one has the slightest clue as to what exists external to the universe. There's plenty of speculation, but there exists no observations that would point us in the right direction. The universe may indeed implode in itself if it is not expanding fast enough to resist the gravitational attraction of all the mass in the universe. Whether or not it is expanding fast enough is an important and open question in cosmology as well as philosophy.
654379
So far our observations are leaning more towards open, because our universe is expanding at an accellerating rate, and it shows no sign of slowing, if it were closed (which we havent found enough matter in the universe to help this theory) then the expansion would slow, come to a stop, and come back and collapse back in on itself. But so far evidence is telling us it won't.
420215
First of all: That the universe is expanding is on a solid scientific ground and can definitely be observed. However, this is not observed by looking at nearby stars. It is only for stars very close to us that the positions can be measured the way you suggest. All such nearby stars are in the Milky Way, our own galaxy. The universe has plenty of galaxies and they are all moving away from each other - it is on this level that the universe is expanding. The nearby stars are not moving away from us (all stars in the Milky Way are rotating about the center of the galaxy so they are moving, but that's another story).\n\nThen why do we know that the other galaxies are moving away from us? That's because of the Doppler effect. In case you haven't heard of it, it is the same effect which makes an ambulance sound higher in pitch when it is approaching you than when it is moving away from you. Lower pitch means that the sound wave has a longer wavelength. The same effect is present for light: The light we see from a galaxy which is moving away from us has longer wavelengths (is more red if you wish) than a similar object which is not moving. As it turns out, all distant galaxies exhibit this "redshift" meaning that they are all moving away from us and the universe must be expanding.\n Hope that helps.
419320
As matter approaches the speed of light, the properties of change, and since E=MC2, we know that there's a relationship between energy and matter.\n\nEinstein's theory of special relativity dictates that since all motion is relative (for example, you in your chair may be at rest, but the Earth is rotating, the galaxy is moving, and the universe is expanding).  However, the speed of light will be measured by anyone anywhere to be the same.  \n\nIf an object undergoing constant change (like, say a human aging) is accellerated to close to the speed of light, the environment around it, (like say, his family on earth), would experience time at a different rate.  If you go on a 6-month space flight traveling at near the speed of light, you would find that people on Earth had aged several years.\n\nIn this way, it is like that person traveled into the future.  However, I can't think of any plausible way of matter reversing time, since it must be positive, or zero.
82120
The red shift depends on the relative speeds of the source and the detector. It is simply an example of the Doppler shift, which occurs in light whenever there are such differences in velocities.\n\nIt is not true that everything a certain distance away will be moving at the same speed. On top of the expansion of space, there is the peculiar motion of the object itself. So, for example, the Andromeda spiral galaxy is actually moving *closer* to us (i.e. has a blue shift)! The point is that it is close enough that the velocity of expansion is overwhelmed by the particular velocity of that Galaxy. In fact, one of the hard things about estimating Hubble's constant is exactly trying to deal with these peculiar motions.\n\nSo, it is the velocity that determines the red shift, not the distance alone. As you go further out, the velocity of expansion is larger and so the peculiar motions aren't as relevant.
226314
The answer to your question lies with something called "inflation." The mechanics of inflation are very involved, but basically here's the gist of it: Long before the universe was even one second old it began to expand faster than the speed of light. Sounds like a violation of relativity, but it's not because at this point in the evolution of the universe there was no mass, only space-time which is not restricted by relativity. The bottom line is that with this FTL expansion rate, nothing could possibly pull the universe back into the initial singularity.\n\nFor a detailed look at inflation, check this website --> http://www.lifesci.sussex.ac.uk/home/John_Gribbin/cosmo.htm
663818
From the physics point of view, our universe thus far is approximately 15 billion light years and expanding every second. Light year is the distance that light with the speed of nearly 300,000 Km/s travels in one year. This distance equals 9, 500, 000, 000, 000 Km (that light travels each year). Now, imagine how big our universe is!!\n\nAbout the second part, The space-time (space and time are inseparable) make our universe. They are both dynamic and the  fact that universe expands means both the space and the time expand. Now, in what do the space and time and our universe expand? This fact is not like other daily facts in our life, it is not possible to assign a place for space-time so that our universe expand in it. We cannot say there is something outside our universe because it is meaningless. These concepts are complex and require in-depth studies and deliberating.\n\nI hope these would be a little helpful...
166645
Well, there are believed to be a class of unverified particles that surpass the speed of light called Tachyons.  If they move toward the object that created it then perhaps it could be true.  That's about the only way I could think to prove it since actually getting any object of study to surpass the speed of light would likely cause the big collapse and pull the entire universe on to one spot right were the object reached that speed and gain infinite mass as Einstein also theorized.\n\nOn the other hand, claiming anything as entirely impossible is foolish.  Science lives in absolutes and when thy get proven wrong, there always tons of frumpy old men in lab coats ready to restate that it was a theory though they called it a fact the day before.
296266
It's actually kind of unfortunate the the ultimate speed limit is generally referred to as "the speed of light", because the concepts are actually different.  Also, saying that "the mass increases" really only confuses the issue, and physicists don't really talk in terms of changing mass in relativistic systems.  The "mass increases" argument is actually just a kludge to keep the P=mv (momentum equals the product of mass and velocity) equation working at relativistic speeds, but it makes more sense just to use a relativistic momentum expression and not talk about changing masses.\n\nSpecial relativity, amply confirmed by experiment, shows that things we consider "obvious" about space and time, are not quite as simple as they appear.  Velocities don't strictly add  together, and faster objects become shorter, with clocks passing more slowly.  These results are, in fact, an inevitable outcome of Maxwell's equations, though it took a long time for them to be carried to their logical conclusion.\n\nSo, velocities aren't additive, and there is no global clock which passes equally for all observers.  Given these, it is possible to talk about the mathematics of relativity in flat space.  The math produces a sort of mapping, one which happens to reach asymptotes at the "speed of light".  This defines an ultimate speed limit, a speed beyond which it makes no sense to talk about things.  In a way, something moving at the speed of light is moving at infinite speed in a "mapped space" under the Lorentz equations which govern the way relativistic effects manifest themselves.\n\nSo, the mathematics of the Lorentz transforms lead to the existance of an ultimate speed limit, one for which there is no "faster than this", in the same way that there is no number "larger than infinity".  No matter how quickly you go, the speed of light is always the same relative speed to you, light always passes you at the same measured speed.\n\nLight moves at the ultimate speed limit because it is composed of massless particles, which are required to move exactly at the ultimate speed limit.\n\nSo, the speed limit is mathematical, externally imposed.  The speed of light is the same because photons are massless.  If photons were not massless, they would travel at less than "the speed of light", but there would still be an ultimate speed limit, one which photons could approach but never reach.\n\nThe speed of sound is related to the motion of atoms which carry a disturbance, and because the atoms have mass, they are not constrained to travel at the ultimate speed limit, and in fact are forbidden from doing so, so the speed of sound is below the speed of light.\n\nWhen light slows down, it's because it is being jostled, absorbed and re-emitted, generally impeded by obstacles.  In between such interruptions, it still moves at the ultimate speed limit, but the interruptions reduce the average speed.  To use an imperfect analogy, if you ran at full speed through an empty room, and measured your own ultimate speed, then filled the room with people, you would find that they would form obstacles that could slow you down, but would not speed you up.
470081
No.  The theory of relativity states that an object moving at a high enough velocity will appear to shrink along the direction of motion and increase mass from the point of view of a non moving observer, so much so that, if a physical object would be to travel at the speed of light, its dimension will be zero and its mass infinite.
613393
Drunk again?? No problem. The Universe is expanding outward at about the speed of light and the "edge" that you refer to is the actual outer boundary of our Ubiverse as it contines to expand.  Outside of our Universe, or the absolutely empty vacuum that the Universe is expanding into has no light to shine into our Universe.  It is a totally dark, empty, absolute zero cold, infinite vacuum.
229022
There are numerous problems with your assertion: you measure the universe's size using the farthest object viewed from earth (13.7 billion ly).  Then you assume (from your equations) that earth is at the center of the universe (a somewhat egotistical idea), also, you forget to measure in the opposite direction (galaxies are visible at 180 degrees of the one observed to be 13.7 billion ly from here). Add to all these your interesting equivalent of the speed of light...apparently you believe the speed of light to be somewhere around 34.2 meters per second (a mere 226.4 times slower than the space shuttle).  If you are going to try to figure out the size of the universe, do a little more research and brush up on your math...for example: \n\n"From new data collected from a space probe examining the Cosmic Background Radiation, astronomers estimate the universe is at least 156 billion light-years wide. Actually, it’s long been known that the universe was a lot wider than 27.4 billion light-years; this latest research tells us how much wider.\n\nAccording to researchers writing in the journal Physics Review Letters, the universe must have expanded much faster than light in its early stage." *\n\nSo take into account that one light year is 9,467,280,000,000 km ** and you get...\n\n1.476895680 x 10^24 km\n\nthat's 1 octillion, 476 septillion, 895 sextillion, 680 quintillion kilometers wide (or 1 quadrilliard, 476 quadrillion, 895 trilliard, 680 trillion kilometers wide for those following the European system of counting)...and that disregards the continued expansion since the observations.\n\nOf course there are also quite a few scientists who affirm that the universe is infinite, so, in the end, nobody really knows.