is the speed of light increasing????
470012
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
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!
506771
Actually by what Einstein explained, da light will still be in  front of da car, it won't go behind u no matter how fast u r going even if u r faster dan da speed of light. Weird? rit. I too thought so, It was explained in discovery channel. Well I'll try 2 explain it 2 u, But it wud hav been easier if I cud actually show it by som animations. When u r travellin at da speed of light, time stops. Ya it does. Time is somthin like per user setting, it is unique for u & each & every one. Think dat ur carrying an Einstein's clock, which is a simple devise with 2 mirrors facing each other with a photon bouncin of the mirror. Each time it bounces from a mirror u'll hear a tic sound, that will b 1 second for u. Say u travel at a speed little less dan light u r movin forward but da photon has 2 move a lot more distance than it initially had been, which was in a straight line, but now it's motion will b som what like a hypotenuse, so it has 2 travell more distance dependin on ur speed. So ur 1 sec will not be da same as 1 sec is for som 1 on earth. So actually ur headlight will be actually movin faster dan u no matter what
349427
no, anything that travels close to the speed of light becomes more massive as it goes faster, and would actually become infinitely massive at the speed of light. this means it would take an increasing amount of energy just to get close, and an infinite amount to reach that speed. the only reason light can reach that speed is because it is made of photons which have no mass. even a tiny particle like an electron can never actually reach the speed of light.\n\nHowever, faster than light travel may be possible by warping space-time itself, using phenomena like wormholes or even black holes.
137491
No.\n\nHowever, just recently, in 1999, John Webb, an Australian astronomer, wrote a paper about some results (gathered by another group) that *hinted* at a *minor* change in the speed of light. In the end, though, more recent follow-up observations have not found this effect. So the speed of light remains, as far as we can determine, constant.\n\nWhat the observations were is spectra from extremely distant quasars. The relationship of the spectral lines for different substances (they were probably looking at lines from ionized iron) depend on the rules of Quantum Mechanics (which are not disputed by anyone sensible) and some physical constants.\n\nThe most important constant related to this is what is called the "fine structure constant," which depends on the value of Planck's constant ("h"), as well as the speed of light ("c"), and also another one known as the "permittivity of the vaccuum." It turns out that the fine structure constant has a value of about 137 with no units. Its a pure number.\n\nWhat the observations suggested was that the fine structure constant (written as the greek letter alpha) was slightly different in the distant, and therefore long-ago, quasars. Their reasoning was the the most likely "constant" in the fine structure constant to be variable was c, the speed of light.\n\nTherefore the said that their pre-1999 observations suggested that the speed of light was slightly different in the first billion years or so, after the Big Bang.\n\nIf true, this is a huge deal, even if the variation in c is very small. So a couple of groups went out and tried to duplicate the results. Better observations did NOT show the effect, so the idea that c was changing was dropped.\n\nThis proceeded exactly the way science is supposed to work. Note in the 2001 link below, at the bottom of the article the then-proponents of this idea "were careful not to overhype it." This differs from some cranks who make great claims without any observations.\n\n\nA couple of related comments: when light passes through a medium, like glass, the photons bounce around alot instead of just flying straight through, so the effective speed of the light through the glass is less than c. The constant c = 299,792,458 meters/s, is the speed of light in a vaccum.\n\nAlso, there are some experiments which have been done on light in a medium which are sometimes portrayed as "light going faster than c." That is sort true, but misleading. The faster speed is the phase speed and no information is carried faster than light.\n\nAnd finally, some creationists claim that the speed of light has changed *A LOT* because they want all the distant galaxies and such to be much closer to us, so that the age of the universe fits their bible-based conclusions. I don't think these guys want the universe to be 6000 years old, but only a few million. At any rate, there is absolutely no evidence for this drastic change in c, and lots of evidence that the idea wrong.
227315
Speed of light in vacuum is given, but light travels at constant speed in any medium, but the magnitude of the speed might be different than any other medium. There was a discussion about that here before. You might wanna check that.
1170536
I will attempt an answer that is somewhat factual.  \n\nThe theory does not stipulate that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light.  It stipulates that matter can not approach the speed of light.  In fact a hypothetical partical called a tachyon has been named that has a speed faster than the speed of light.  That partical has an imaginary mass. \n\nThe entire work comes from the equations developed by Einsten,\n\nE= MC^2/ sq rt (1- c^2/v^2)
144969
It's something along the lines that mass increases with speed. The closer you get to the speed of light the more mass you achieve, which requires more energy to move you. This increases exponentially, always getting closer to the speed of light, until you are essentially immovable, you can't get any heavier so can't move any faster. I heard this explained in a college class once and probably totally got it wrong, but it's in that vein.
61325
the Flash @ speed of light ;)
226867
The speed of light. 186,000 miles per second.
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.
799784
In theory, yes.  Because the light particles that were traveling slower than you would have been slower.  Very good question.  However, speeding past the speed of light would mean the fundamentals of E = Mc^2, would cease to make sense.
399905
We've actually run experiments that EXCEEDED the speed of light - which means the observer detected a particle before it left the emitter.  Wish I still had the link to give you.\n\nWeird science.  But real.
724874
Answer is yes.  By "seeing", what we really mean is our eyes receiving light either reflected or emitted from an object.  It doesn't matter how fast the object is moving, or if it's approaching or receeding - the speed of light is constant, therefore you will see it both coming and going.  That's one of the beautys of relativity - the speed of light is not relative to the object it's coming from, but instead is fixed and will measure the same speed for all observers in the universe, moving or not.
970195
This is one of the oldest questions in the world, after Einstein came out with his special relativity.  The answer is that no matter how fast you are going, your headlight beam is STILL shining ahead at the speed of light. This is exactly what the equations say, and it works.  If it wasn't true, then all the giant particle smashers in the world costing billions of dollars wouldn't even work.
143269
As you approach the speed of light, your mass approached infinity... As your mass approaches infinity, it takes more force for you to accelerate... Therefore, I don't think it is possible for you to acchieve the speed of light...
911033
No.  Nothing goes faster than the speed of light.