can any one of you think of a way to  travel at the speed of light?
359864
when u fire a rocket at high speed when u r moving at near speed of light relative to an observer, from the observer point of view, the rocket would never reach the speed of light due to relativistic effects of time dilation and length contraction. The observer would observe a flat rocket that is moving in slow motion.. the closer it is to the speed of light, the slower it moves, when it reach the speed of light, the observer would see the rocket as frozen and not moving. And from your point of view, u cannot accelerate the rocket to the speed of light RELATIVE to u.\n\nThe crucial point here is, RELATIVE. Everything has to be discussed relative to something else. There is no meaning in talking about ultimate speed since physical laws r invariant under translation and there is no prefered point of reference in the universe. When u talk about speed, u have to specify, with respect wo what.\n\nThere is no simultaneity in Einstein's relativity theory. The time u observe for a rocket to travel 1 mile is different from the time observed by the observer observing from somewhere else which is moving with some speed relative to u. This is relativity.\n\nAnd when u r moving near the speed of light, relative to an observer, u will not disintegrate and burst into some x-ray. As mentioned already, speed is relative. You are stationary with respect to your desk. But from the point of view of an alien observing from a planet a distance away, u r moving due to the motion of the Earth and sun and everything. Does that mean u or the alien would disintegrate and vanish into thin air???? no, of coz not. Pls do not think about friction.. that when u rub with air or other particles as u move thru space, u give off energy. no, that's not relativity.\n\nWe observe stars becoz they give off light from the nuclear reactions that is happening constantly in their core. We observe differing wavelengths due to the intensity of energy emitted, and also due to Doppler's effect due to expanding universe.\n\nThe centre idea of Einstein's relativity is that, there is no absolute space and time anymore. Space and time r different manisfestation of the same thing and they r interwoven into a connected flexible piece called the spacetime... instead of space and time in Newtonian physics. Relativity must not be understood in terms of theories of Newtonian physics. Relativity is not a new play on the stage of physics. Relativity is itself a new stage, literally.
222343
you can travel to the future but not the past, the closer you travel to the speed of light the faster the time goes by on the outside. I once knew how this worked but can't rememeber now.\n\nIn order to travel through time, one must travel at the speed of light, or at least at speeds very close to the speed of light. The problem is, as you mention, that it is not possible to accelerate something up to the speed of light. This comes from the theory of special relativity. In that theory, Einstein has shown that as something accelerates and travels at great speeds its mass increases. And the larger the mass of the object, the harder it is to give it a push to make it accelerate some more. So when the speed of the object gets really close to the speed of light, its mass becomes almost infinite making it impossible to actually give it the speed of light (or speeds faster than the speed of light). \n\nBut you don't need to travel exactly at the speed of light to "travel to the future". This also comes from Einstein's special relativity. When things travel at speeds close to the speed of light, time slows down. For example, if you were travelling for 10 years in a spaceship that could go at 95% the speed of light then 32 years would go by for the people that stayed on Earth. So in that sense you could say that you have traveled in the future. However we do not have the means to accelerate our space shuttles to speeds even close to that. The space shuttle travels at about 17,500 miles per hour which is 40,000 times slower than the speed of light. At that speed, an astronaut would have to travel a billion years in his space ship in order to jump one year in the future!
148002
It's technically impossible for something with mass (like a spacecraft) to go the speed of light in our universe under the laws of physics.  As something approaches the speed of light, it gains mass.  In theory, if something were to actually go the speed of light, it would have infinite mass, which is impossible.  \n\nOf course, no one can say for sure.  Science fiction on television and in books have gotten around these rules by using wormholes, subspace, etc., none of which are known to actually exist.
435706
An instant.. There's the nutty problem. You are saying something moves from one place to another with no time lag.\nMuch much faster than the speed of light. \nMass is inversely related to energy and you want the thing to exist in two places for and instant but then, not to exist at the same two places for an instant. \nThis is similar to the fly hitting the windscreen... Does it stop moving, actually that is easier to answer.\nIn order to move something at the speed of light the something cannot have a rest mass. So if you wanted to Transport something, you'd firstly have to change it into energy. This is indeed possible, but not at the moment in our evolution. Once you've got it into energy you'd have to send it somewhere, at the speed of light and then reconstitute it at the other end.. Possible for inanimate objects but may be a bit tricky for living organisms.. More tricky still would be to transport our personalities, mind you there are a number of people I think could do with this transportation!!!
721881
I dont think time travel is possible! Even if you were to go faster than the speed of light, it still takes time to get to where you are going. And that brings up another question, where do you go?? Do you zoom around the planet a few million times? Which direction? Does it matter, it still takes TIME to do it.\n\nJust for argument sake, lets say you could go back (or forward) in time. I dont know why you couldnt be seen, you just traveled to a different time and when you get there your there, just as if you were to travel to a different city.
878573
You wanted a serious answer so here goes.\n\nWhat you ask is impossible to put into practise. It is impossible under Einsteins theory for anyone to travel at the speed of light.\n\nSimply put I will try to explain why,, as you approach the speed of light matter expands or rather the mass does. According to the research , the speed of light would produce infinite mass so it is impossible to travel at that speed.\n\nThat's were the theory of worm holes came about, by creating a rip through space you can jump if you like from one point to another, crossing several light years of travel in an instant. But as you have made use of a warp in space itself you don't actually go the speed of light.\n\nSo basically, you cannot answer your question,, I can see were you get this idea from though as it is true that the faster an objects velocity is, the slower time passes for that object.\n\nThis was proven some 50 years ago by use of atomic clocks on a plane, one flew round the world while the other remained in London. When they were brought together it was noted that time passed slower for the moving clock.\n\nHope this helps.
41924
It is definitely possible. However, we do not have the technology needed to reach the kind of speeds necessary to allow for travel to other solar systems, stars, etc. Here's something to consider, though. Einsteins Laws of Relativity, while not allowing travel at full light speed, do allow travel almost up to (and just short of) light speed. As you go closer to light speed, the traveler's clock would "slow down" as compared to an observer's clock on a "stationary" object. If you got close enough to light speed, you could travel across the galaxy (100,000 light years wide) in what might seem minutes or hours to you, and about 100,000 years to me. Great, great stuff. To learn more about this concept, google "twins paradox". Or go to http://media.nasaexplores.com/lessons/02-060/9-12_2.pdf and scroll down to page three. This will explain it more fully to you.
491273
Right now, we're not even close to faster-than-light (or FTL) travel.  All out traveling has to be done at less than the speed of light, so most stars are farther away than we can get to.  Even at half the speed of light (which is far faster than we can travel) it would take 8 years to reach the nearest star, not counting the Sun.  (Not to mention 8 more years to get home afterward!)  Nothing can move faster than the speed of light, so our best hope is to do just like they do on Star-Trek.  The found a way to bend spacetime to get to distant stars without actually moving through normal space, which had less of a curve.  Nobody has any idea how to do that now, so we just have to keep expanding our understanding of science until we do.  Until then, I think our best bet on meeting intelligent extraterrestrial life is to hope for them to come to us!
672393
Right now, many scientists believe that we cannot go faster than the speed of light.  As you get closer, the plane would get heavier and heavier until it slowed down.  Right near the speed of light, the plane would weigh almost infinity so it wouldn't be able to go faster.\n\nIt might be possible to somehow bypass it, but that's mostly science fiction right now.
347791
Your example is actually a good one for how we know no one can travel faster than the speed of light.  The people on the boat would measure the same speed for the beam of light as those standing on the shore.\n\nEinstein's theory of special relativity states that, regardless of your motion, light's speed remains constant.  Space and time warp in order to make light's speed constant from all perspectives.  As matter gets closer and closer to the speed of light, space stretches and time contracts, requiring infinite energy to reach the speed of light.  Only things with no mass (i. e. energy only) can travel at the speed of light, and nothing we know of can go faster.\n\nHowever, Einstein's theories do suggest that we could bend space and time to allow us to get around the speed of light.  We can't travel a trillion miles per second, but, with enough energy, we could shift some spot a trillion miles away to right next to us.
334240
Well, completely aside from size, light-speed travel is currently impossible by our technology. When and if that technology is ever invented, I would say 'yes', because there is no such thing as wind resistance in space ^_^
168923
>>>>why can nothing excede the speed of light?\n\nLots of things can and do exceed the speed of light.\n \nNo information or mass can exceed the speed of light. Why? Because the speed of light is our one reference point. If anything exceeded the speed of light it would arrive at its destination BEFORE it was sent.\n\nIt's exactly like recieving a letter the day before it is written. It's impossible and  it makes no real sesne to ask why it can't happen. Cause has to preceed effect.\n\n>>>>if radio waves are slower than light\n\nRadio waves are just electromagnetic radiation. They travel at lightspeed just like all other EMR.\n\n>>>>>then wouldnt gama and X rays be faster?\n\nNo, they also travel at C. They just have higher freqencies.\n\n>>> or do all waves travel at the same speed and the light >>> part is just a term\n\nWaves have all sorts of speeds. \nOcean waves travel at variable speeds, often les than 10  kms.hr. \nSound waves travel at a bit over 1000km/hr. \nLight waves travel at the speed of light.\n\n_______________\nInfinity said:"By the way, the quote "Lots of things can and \n>>>>>>do exceed the speed of light" is entirely false.\n\nI really, really wish people would do some basic research before attempting to adress points they clearly don't understand.\n\nThe expansion of the universe itself is faster than the speed of light (see the link below).\n\nAnd as wd5gnr and Hound both said it is perfectly possible for non-information bearing events to propagate faster than lightspeed. We recently had an in depth discussion on the experiments which have managed to produce pahse vlocities hundreds of times faster than light.\n\nAnd of course there are many many other events that travel at speeds well in excess of C.\n\nReally Infinity, you should at least take the time to do some research before correcting others. It saves you embarassment of this kind. More importantly it prevents you misleading others and spreading your ignorance.
445790
there is a design for a "starship" that IS theoretically feasible.\n\nit is known as the "Bussard RamJet" and you might look it up in the wikipedia.com ( it is also mentioned in Carl Sagan's "Cosmos".)\n\nthis ship can theoretically travel at 10 % the speed of light ( i.e 18,600 mi/sec .)  it is technically possible to build it NOW if the motivation ( and funds) existed.  \n\nif you traveled on this ship, "relativistic effects" would slow your aging in comparison with the earth.  In other words, when you return, hundreds of years may have elapsed in relation to only a few of your own.  because of this, any trip must be considered "one way" in the social sense.  \n\nto answer your question,  the technology is here but no one is trying becuase the time paradox is too real.  besides, we wouldnt know where to go anyway.  ( it would be hit or miss ).  the landing part is quite simple.... the hard part is getting there !
11171
yes, traveling forward in time is definately possible, but we're not sure about back.  This has nothing to do with wormholes or anything, that probably wouldn't work.\n\nanyway, velocity distorts time. The faster you go, the slower time goes for you. This effect is negligable unless you are going very close to the speed of light. In fact the formula is:\nt'= t/sqrt(1-v^2/c^2)\nwhere t' is the time that has passed for a stationary observer, t is the time that has passed for you, sqrt means square root and ^2 means squared. As you can notice, when v is small, since c^2 is so huge, you get a miniscule decimal, and 1 minus that number is basically as small as .999999999999999 or something very very close to one, and so t' stays basically the same as t and time is not really affected. As v gets larger(it can never be the speed of light, then the denomonator would be zero) that fraction becomes closer to 1, so when you subtract it from one, the denomonator gets smaller and smaller, meaning t gets smaller(in order for t' to remain constant) this means that time slows down for the object moving at such velocities! time slows down, so it would feel like lets sayThis formula is correct, it is part of Einstein's theory of relativity, and I have had to derive it myself from ordinary mechanics formulas. \n\nThis proves the formula:\nAccording to the same factor, length also contracts. It has been observed in certain tiny particles coming to the earth's surface. These particles have a certain lifespan before they become unstable and decay. They are also moving at a certain speed. (which is very fast; close to the speed of light.) You should simply be able to calculate v=d/t (velocity=distance/time) to find out how far they would travel. However, they somehow travel farther than that. When this calculated distance is put into that formula, we come up with the correct distance they actually travel! \n\nSo yes, as you get faster and faster, since time slows down for you, theoretically, you could be moving at these speeds for a short time and time will seem to be moving normally for you, but have years and years pass for everyone else, thus traveling forward in time. As far as back in time... well, if you think about it, if things travel slower and slower the closer you get to light, does that mean it would stop when you reached it? and what would happen when you went faster, would it go back in time?  the only problem with this is that nothing can go faster than the speed of light, which has been considered "the ultimate speed limit of the universe."  Plus, if you were to go faster, the v^2/c^2 would be greater than one, meaning you'd get a negative number after subtracting it from one and have a negative number under the square root in that formula.  This is impossible.  Also, the problem with even traveling forward in time is that it would require immense amounts of energy to accelerate objects that fast.  It requires particle accelerators miles long just to get small sub-atomic particles to go that fast, imagine massive objects, it would be crazy. and distorting time by any reasonable amount would require going at least 90% the speed of light.. probably faster.  The closer you got to the speed of light, the more time would slow down for you.\n\nThere are also some other methods described in the book "time travel in einstein's universe" by Richard Gott, if you're interested.
737000
Time travelling is a very difficult topic.\n\nYou can supposedly travel into the past if you travel faster than the speed of light but this involves getting a source of infinite energy as when matter gets closer and closer to the speed of light its mass will dramatically increase.\n\nThis is said to be very unlikely but general relativity says it may be possible on highly unusual circumstances.\n\nWormholes, permitted by general relativity,  could be possible only if it is traversable.\n\nIf you read general relativity and objects at speed of light you get time, space and gravity based dilations where light appears to be bent by gravity and arrives at an object at different times.\n\nYet again the object has to be travelling at 0.99c or faster!!\n\nI says time travel will never happens but i wish it would.
555330
Travel close to the speed of light or get really close to the event horizon of a black hole.\n(Well, you DID ask it in the physics forum!)\n\nIf you just want to relax, why not spend some time on Yahoo! Answers!!!!! It's fun.\n\n\n:)
436694
Technically no.  As you get closer and closer to the speed of light the weight of objects grows and grows so that eventually it will stop accelerating.\n\nOne thing that is possible is subspace, freespace, or wormhole travel, all of which are the same thing.  This is where space bends so that the distance is made shorter.  An example of this is traveling to the other side of the world.  You can go around the world, or you can go straight through the center (this is impossible), which distance is shorter.  To achieve subspace travel you must open up a big enough portal of quantum foam, or the space between the nucleus of an atom and its electrons.  We can not currently do this because we do not have the ability to make cold fusion which is the only 'safe' way to supply enough power.  Navigation, however, is a completely other story.\n\nhope this helps answer your question.