electricity faster than the speed of light?
108187
No it wouldn't travel faster than the speed of light.\n\nThe frequency has no effect on things whatsoever. I can only assume that you think think that a 60 hZ cycle means the electrons have to travel between the east and west coast and back again 60 times every second. That is not true. Eletricity doens't work by a literal flow of electrons but by the motion of electrons, which is not the same thing.\n\nWhen the currrent reverses diection the elctrons don't all fly back along the cable. Instead the motion reverses. Think the electrons like a column of marching soldiers a mile long. When the Seargent Major orders an about  face the line changes direction of movement but the lead soldier doesn't have to actually run a mile to the other end. All that happens is that the lead soldier changes.\n\nIn exactly the way, when the current changes the flow reverses and the 'terminal' electron becomes the lead and vice versa. Nothing actually runs from one coast to the other.
173152
Couldn't quite reach the speed of light, but if it reaches relativistic speeds (a significant fraction of speed of light), it's a million times faster than a bullet.  Energy would be a trillion times higher per gram.  Since a cotton ball is about one thousandth the mass of a bullet, it would have a billion times more energy than a bullet (roughly 5 billion joules for a cotton ball of 1 milligram at 1/3 the speed of light).  This is approximately the energy of one ton of TNT, which would kill you dead.
1187636
Light always travels at the same speed in a vacuum, the speed changes ever so slightly when it has to go through a different medium (water e.g.) but its so fast to begin with you wouldn't really notice it. 300,000 kilometers per second is beyond human comprehension, I mean you can only imagine how fast that is, you can't experience it or 'know' it.
563154
There are things that can move faster than the speed of light, but they can't carry information faster than the speeed of light.  For example if you shine a spotlight on a distant mountain and then spin the light around so that the spot moves really fast you can easily get a situation where that spot of light goes faster than the speed of light.\n\nBut I think you were referring to particles that move faster than light maybe?  It was conjectured that a particle called a "tachyon" could go faster than light.  But these particles have never been detected, although serious efforts have been made to do so.  \n\nIn the real world if you keep adding energy to a particle, its speed will keep increasing, but it can never hit the speed of light.  Then again, maybe there can be some mechanism whereby matter could be made to "jump" to a speed higher than the speed of light without ever going *at* the speed of light?  I think nobody knows a way to do this, and it may also be impossible.  New physics would need to be discovered!
1126307
the opposite of the speed of light :)
972241
Firstly, please allow me to substitute your term "speed" for the more accurate term "velocity".\n\nAll particles and waves have an intrinsic velocity  in a vacuum.  The subatomic particle which makes up light is the photon.  The photon travels at an average maximum velocity of 3x10^8 m/sec in a vacuum.  For the exact numerical speed, here is a good source\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light\n\nbut for the purposes of almost all calculations, 3x10^8m/sec is used.  There are physical forces which can slow down the speed of light, and the chief force is gravity.\n\nDarkness is the absence of light, and therefore, the absence of any photons. Therefore, the concepts of speed and velocity are not applicable.\n\nP.S.  There is only one particle theorized to be faster than the speed of a photon, or more aptly put, faster than the speed of light.  That subatomic particle is the "tachyon".  It is further theorized that , because it is travelling faster than the speed of light, it is also travelling backward in time.\n\nP.P.S.  Many of the theories in physics are derived from solutions to various "so-called" unsolvable problems derived from math theory.  In this sense , physics and math go hand in hand.  Therefore, many physics theories are simply supported by math equations until a real life proof can be generated, characterized properly, qualified, and quantified.  The problem here is that just because a math equation may have a solution , it alone BY NO MEANS is proof in and of itself of the existence of subatomic particles and physical phenomenae.  It can only be used as a measuring stick,of sorts,  in order to look for the existence, and therefore, FORMAL PROOF of such phenomenae.
711259
I have always been a fan of this discussion. I propose that ANYTHING can travel faster than the speed of light (SOL). I also believe that was the driving force behind Einstein's assumptions. When we start talking about time slowing down as we approach SOL, we are talking about time RELATIVE to something else...If two people are together on a SOL spacecraft, then the time they experience is the same as if they were standing still. \n\nBefore I ramble on too much, What stops light from going any faster? If we had a theoretical spacecraft that could travel at 1/2 SOL, and we shot a laser off the front of it, how fast would the light be travelling? To the observers on the SOL-craft, the light would be travelling at absolute SOL, but to someone standing next to the craft when the laser was activated, would the light NOT be travelling at 1.5 SOL?
218137
I have nver heard of an electric current being effected by light, so my first inclination is to say no.\n\nHowever, if you think of light as an electromagnetic wave, a set of orthagonal electric and magnetic fields, it may be possible.\nAn electric current is simply the flow of charged particles (usually electrons).\nWe know that an electric field will effect an electric current (opposite charges attract, like charges repel).  We also know that a magnetic field will effect a current (moving electric current generated magnetic field and exerts a force on an electricly charged particles).\nSo it may be possible for the moving electric and magnetic fields to interfere with the electric current, but I am not entirely sure.
64217
to answer your question it is possible to go faster the the speed of light. The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second.\n\nIf zooming beyond the local speed limit is punishable by law, then some scientists may have a gargantuan speeding ticket to pay. \n\nIn a controversial experiment reported in this weeks journal Nature, scientists at the NEC Research Institute in Princeton, New Jersey claim to have broken the ultimate speed limit -- the speed of light. Though hotly contested, some say this achievement could dramatically increase the speeds at which we can send and receive information. \n\nTaught in physics classes the world over, Albert Einsteins theory of special relativity holds that no object or information can move faster than the speed of light in a vacuum, or 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) per second. But NECs Lijun Wang says he created an experiment in which a light beam raced through a gas-filled chamber so quickly, it exceeded the speed of light by a factor of 300. Whats more, the light pulse appears to have left the confines of the chamber before it even entered a seemingly impossible occurrence according to theories of causality, which predict that causes must always precede their effects. \n\n"It sounds crazy, but this can actually occur," said Raymond Chiao, a physicist at the University of California at Berkeley. Chiao, one of a group of researchers who have been working to break the speed-of-light limit, explained that although a common object such as a baseball could never be flung faster than the speed of light, pulses of energy with certain complex properties have been known to bend the rules. \n\n\n\n"It sounds crazy, but it actually can occur." \n\n\n\n\nIn fact, several recent experiments, including one done by Chiao earlier this year, have pointed to energy pulses zooming faster than light speed. Yet each of these experiments has been encumbered by severe limitations on measurement or observation of the energy pulses. In contrast, this latest experiment is being touted by some as the most dramatic example yet of light breaking its own speed barrier. \n\n"The effects are much larger and more spectacular" than previous observations, said Chiao. \n\nIn Wangs experiment, a pulse of light passed through a small chamber filled with atoms of elemental cesium. A light beam traveling through such a medium has two different velocities a velocity for the individual light waves in the beam and a group velocity for the entire beam. Oddly, some light waves in the beam can actually travel backward for miniscule amounts of time, creating a sort of "tail" behind forward-moving waves. As such, a light wave and its tail can leave the gas cavity at different times, creating the effect that the light beam has left the cavity before its even entered. \n\nConfused? Youre not alone. In fact, even scientists who are familiar with this area of study are unsure about the details of Wangs experiment. And many scientists said the experiments results are still open to interpretation. \n\nWilliam Happer, a physicist at Princeton University argued that several specific problems exist with the experiment, including the fact that pulses get distorted when passed through any media other than a vacuum, or empty space. In addition, he said Wang and his colleagues performed the experiment in a way that doesnt tell the whole story, and that it can be interpreted incorrectly. "This is anything but dramatic," said Happer. "If you look at the data, theres essentially no evidence that [the beam] is going faster than the speed of light." \n\nWhats more, most scientists agree that even if such a beam can be proved speedier than light, it would probably not be able to carry any information. Such a feat could conceivably allow data to be sent back in time, thus violating laws of causality and sending quantum physics into disrepair. \n\nOthers are more optimistic as to the possible
864979
The speed of the propagation of the electric field within a wire is limited by the speed of light.  Information cannot travel faster than light, so if you switched on a light bulb millions of miles away it would take a very noticeable lag before you see the light come on.\nFirst the electricity must travel down the wire at a speed no faster than c, then the light emitted by the bulb must return at c.\n\nIt is important to note that although the influence of the electric field propagates at the speed of light, the electrons making up the electric current do not travel this fast themselves since they have mass.  The individual electrons in the current carrying wire travel much more slowly.  The electrons that go "into" one end of the wire are not the same electrons that "come out" of the other end.
960079
You've lost the point of the equation.  Squaring the speed of light will give you the energy released, not an enhanced speed of light.
48482
It is how fast light travels. It varies depending on the medium it is going through. The denser the medium, the slower it travels.\n\nIt is possible for radiation to travel faster than light through a medium, I think it is called Korentkov radiation or something like that.\n\nBut the upper limit, based on Einstein's "C" constant is about 186,000 miles per second or 300 million km per hour
492443
It is theoretically possible, but highly impractical.  Think about the equation E=mc^2.  C is the speed of light - 186000 meters per second.  So from that equation, you can see that a tiny bit of mass is the equivalent of a huge amount of energy.  Conversely, it would take a huge amount of energy to make even a tiny amount of mass.
191413
Nothing can go faster than light *in a vacuum*. But light goes slower when it moves through materials. So, for example, light only goes 75% of the vacuum speed when it moves through water. If an electron, say, goes through water at 80% of the vacuum speed of light, it will emit radiation. This radiation is called Cerenkov radiation.
644825
According to Special Relativity Theory, when you are transporting a mass at a speed near lightspeed, the energy needed to increase your speed rises to infinity. We can't provide the system with enough energy to reach the light of speed.\n\nEnergy, though, can travel at the speed of light because it has no mass. If we could transform a mass in energy (remember: E = m c^2) and re-create it at destination, travelling at lightspeed would be possible.\n\nBut, as Dark Helmet said, speed of light is too slow. We need ludicrous speed!
692204
Just a minor nitpick on what others have said.  Electricity can also be the motion of holes, which can be thought of as the absense of an electron.  But generally it is the motion of electrons.
1061558
Moving faster than light isn't really the real issue for space travel as traveling AT the speed of light solves all the distance problems(unless you are interested in time travel!). Of course that in itself is a big challenge. If one could demass the vehicle then surely one could achieve the speed of light!!! Afterall photons do travel at this speed.\nBut we would do very well even with speeds like .99999c because time dilation will reduce the time required drastically. Have the science, just need the technology!