is the speed of light the fastest speed possible?

[Qfwfq]

Originally Posted by Tormod

This way of linking to searches doesn't work as it is a cached search with a timeout.

Ooops! So many things one can learn...

Can something move faster than light?
Moving faster than the speed of light
Particles can travel faster than light!
Faster than the speed of light!!
Faster than the speed of light
Faster than light travel?
faster than the speed of light

[D3x]

Aren't blackholes pulling matter at speeds greater than c ?!

[Jay-qu]

nope, close to, but not reaching let alone exceeding c.

[Pyrotex]

As I have said before [sigh] Special Relativity (SR) is a description of what the observer observes. Einstein's genius was (partially) in his realization that we do NOT and CAN NOT ever, ever, ever know what is ACTUALLY "going on" anywhere in the Universe outside our immediate frame of reference, right NOW.

That was a big sentence. Read it again.

All we can do, Einstein understood, is ... observe whatever it is that we observe. That's it. Well, PLUS, we CAN calculate what we should be able to observe.

SR is a calculation of what we should (and in fact DO) observe when objects are traveling near the speed of light. But we cannot come to conclusions about objects or events that we cannot observe.

By "cannot observe", I don't mean because the closet door is closed. I mean because the object or event is so far away, going so fast, in a strong enough gravity field, or some combo of these, that the light from that object or event can never reach us.

Einstein never "proved" that no objects can exceed the speed of light. Oddly enough, he assumed it as a given. Then he built his SR on top of that assumption. The fact that his SR actually gives the observed results is rather spooky to some folks, and is accepted by others as indirect proof that his assumption was correct.

[hallenrm]

Originally Posted by Tormod

This way of linking to searches doesn't work as it is a cached search with a timeout.

That's indeed wonderful administration, Tormod. :

BTW, I have a suggestion, can't we have an alphabetical directory of emoticons?

[LJP07]

Anyway, why is the Speed of Light the fastest thing possible, what convinced scientists that this observation is true and why can't you get any faster?

[ronthepon]

From what I know, it's the relativistic mass-velocity relation.



As v gets closer to c, te mass of the particle keeps increasing. If the velocity of the particle (v) would reach the speed of light (c) at any point of time, it's mass and thus kinetic energy would be infinite.

Since you cant have any particle having infinite energy, you cant have a particle at the speed of light.

Consider it in a way that as you keep applying force to the particle it keeps getting heavier and heavier, and the acceleration gets smaller and smaller with a constant force.

Eventually, the observation that confirms the deal is that the momenta(is that the correct usage of plural) of electrons have been found to increase with increase in their velocity. This ain't the best proof, but it's all I know. Try googling to find out the reasons why cyclotrons are not used to accelerate electrons.

[rocket art]

Originally Posted by Prolu2007

Anyway, why is the Speed of Light the fastest thing possible, what convinced scientists that this observation is true and why can't you get any faster?

Lightspeed is the fastest unit possible because supposedly matter cannot exceed beyond it (although I have philosophical views about it that can resolve the limitation). In E=mc^2, Einstein was able to incorporate the conscious observer relative to his environment, within the units c^2.

Yet, with the Present dimension of E=mc^2, the observer may be differentiated relative to his environment. There is the observer who is 'aware', and the observer who is 'unaware'. There is a BIG difference to this and it is with 'awareness' that causes humanity to take its course and develop its civilizations.

The eloquent pattern then, of Awareness is what we ought to seek after, and trace it at the most basic level inherently residing within us that would enable us to soar towards greater advancement for the Future. Being profoundly contributory to our Reality, the Awareness embedded in the memory of the Ideal Past, and instrumental in envisioning the Ideal Future, should be assigned with the highest unit this dimensional reality could muster, at the constant lightspeed c alpha=Awareness to be incorporated to the Present E=mc^2 towards an ideally promising, better and freer Future because we choose to be 'Aware'.

I have expressed this view at my post "Parallel Present and Ideal Future" at the Philosophy and Humanities section and I let it be subjected to further scrutiny by members here, and I am willing to expound it further.

[ronthepon]

Rocket art, what exactly do you mean?

How was einstein able to incorporate 'the conscious observer relative to his environment within c^2'?

And what do the second and third paragraphs have to do with the topic at hand?

Originally Posted by rocket art

Yet, with the Present dimension of E=mc^2, the observer may be differentiated relative to his environment. There is the observer who is 'aware', and the observer who is 'unaware'. There is a BIG difference to this and it is with 'awareness' that causes humanity to take its course and develop its civilizations.

The eloquent pattern then, of Awareness is what we ought to seek after, and trace it at the most basic level inherently residing within us that would enable us to soar towards greater advancement for the Future. Being profoundly contributory to our Reality, the Awareness embedded in the memory of the Ideal Past, and instrumental in envisioning the Ideal Future, should be...

For one, How can an observer be differentiated with respect to the environment?

[InfiniteNow]

Originally Posted by rocket art

Lightspeed is the fastest unit possible because supposedly matter cannot exceed beyond it

This made me laugh out loud.
"X is the quietest sound we can hear because we cannot hear anything quieter than x."

Prolu,
My understanding (while limited) parellels Ron's. As you accelerate, you get heavier and as you get heavier it takes more energy to accelerate more. Then, as you approach the speed of light, getting ever closer, you continue to get heavier... so heavey, in fact, that the energy required to make you go any faster is infinite... hence, the limit of c (there's not enough energy in the entire universe to push you past that constant).

That is my understanding. My hope is that we just haven't sufficiently used our imaginations to find a way around this yet.

Back when people were riding horses, they found ways to make them run faster, but horses have limits. So, it took some brilliant epiphany to come up with the concept of a combustion engine driving wheels, and from there, we moved into another eschalon of velocity increases with the engine itself.

Once we find the "combustion engine" of light, we ought to be able to go faster than the "horses" on which we're riding now. Maybe...