theavonlady 2 Posted July 14, 2003 And that's why some theories are trying to suggest that if something travels faster than the speed of light it may be traveling back in time or some such. /avon stares at incandescent bulb, waiting to see moses Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FSPilot 0 Posted July 14, 2003 how do you find out how old a planet is? count it's rings Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
denoir 0 Posted July 14, 2003 I understand has a certain speed and that stars are so far away that us (and even the first humans ever) might possibly be looking at stars that are long gone. I however dont get why you cant travel faster then light. This has been said so often "You cant go faster then ...." and everytime it has been proven false. Some scientists said you couldnt travel faster then the speed of sound and lots of people believed that .... untill Earl Yeager strapped himself in to his X-1 and broke the sound barrier Not quite so. The sound barrier was a technological problem, not a physical one. Einstein's special theory of relativity explains how it works. It has been experimentally confirmed many times. It is a remarkable conclusion and has many interesting side effects, that have all been verified. Here's a very simple test: You measure the speed of light coming from a laser mounted on a fast moving object. If the fast moving object moves with the velocity v and the speed of light is c then one would expect that the total speed of the laser waves are v + c. Not so, their velocity is still c. Mass increases with velocity - at the speed of light the mass becomes infinite and infinite energy is required to move the object. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tex -USMC- 0 Posted July 14, 2003 untill Earl Yeager strapped himself in to his X-1 and broke the sound barrier His name's Charles (he went by Chuck, though) Yeager Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bn880 5 Posted July 14, 2003 And that's why some theories are trying to suggest that if something travels faster than the speed of light it may be traveling back in time or some such. I really don't know... No, but the guy on your avatar had a few thoughts about it. Hmm, and... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FSPilot 0 Posted July 14, 2003 If I remember right from watching a documentary, the problem had something to do with the horizontal stabilizer (the flat part of the T on the tail). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WhoCares 0 Posted July 15, 2003 Hmm, well they can easily prove it these days, as a matter of fact speed of light will be the limiting factor in a few generations of transistor based processors. Â The size of the chip will be too large for electrons (traveling across at nearly the speed of light) to cross in one clock cycle. It's a common misconception that Electrons travel with (almost) the speed of light. In fact, with respect to c they are quite slow, something along a few millimeters per second in a copper line. You can (basically) see it like a pipe full of beads, when you add a bead on one side, another bead will drop out of the other end, but every single bead inside just moved a little bit. So it's the electrical impulse that the electrons transmit with the speed of light. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Supah 0 Posted July 15, 2003 Mass increases with velocity - at the speed of light the mass becomes infinite and infinite energy is required to move the object. Things get heavier when they move faster ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted July 15, 2003 Mass increases with velocity - at the speed of light the mass becomes infinite and infinite energy is required to move the object. Things get heavier when they move faster ? Â Yes. They also don't age as quickly. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bn880 5 Posted July 15, 2003 Hmm, well they can easily prove it these days, as a matter of fact speed of light will be the limiting factor in a few generations of transistor based processors. The size of the chip will be too large for electrons (traveling across at nearly the speed of light) to cross in one clock cycle. It's a common misconception that Electrons travel with (almost) the speed of light. In fact, with respect to c they are quite slow, something along a few millimeters per second in a copper line. You can (basically) see it like a pipe full of beads, when you add a bead on one side, another bead will drop out of the other end, but every single bead inside just moved a little bit. So it's the electrical impulse that the electrons transmit with the speed of light. Well you must be talking about electrical current, but electrons move at the speed of light, travel across a wire slower yet they get a signal across at nearly the speed of light. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WhoCares 0 Posted July 15, 2003 Well you must be talking about electrical current, but electrons move at the speed of light, travel across a wire slower yet they get a signal across at nearly the speed of light. Obviously I talk about current, as you started talking about the current in transistors. Â And not to nitpick, but Electrons are too heavy to travel at c, ~10^(-30)kg. What is transfered at the speed of light is the electrical impulse generated by the change of the electromagnetic field when an Electron moves. Edit: One more point: Why would they build Elecron accelerators if they were already traveling at the speed of light? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bn880 5 Posted July 15, 2003 To get them to travel at that speed in one direction, not vibrate around an atom? EDIT: Yeah so in some cases the electrons actually move at the speed of light, but the point was, signals in processors travel at nearly the speed of light. EDIT2: So yeah, I shouldn't have said the electrons but the fields, you are absolutely right. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
