If you travel faster than light, what happens?

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iholla

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There have been a lot of theories about what you would see or experience if you travelled faster than light.

To put this in perspective, suppose you are walkng towards the store which is say, 100m away from you...but in this case, you are moving at a speed faster than that of light. What do you think would happen?

Any theories?

ps: I am ofcourse assuming that you can stop with as much ease as you can travel faster than light.
 
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naresh

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is that possible or its only hypothetical question ?
 

Nick2007

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Well if you are driving in a car faster than the speed of light, and you turn on the headlights, then the light will probably 'follow' you behind. The faster you go, the faster the line of light behind you. Kinda like a jet going faster than the speed of sound, the faster it is, the longer you'll have to wait for the sound to catch up. The faster a car drives after the speed of light, the longer the 'stream' of light behind it. That's kinda my theory.

For the person walking, I believe that you'll see just a big blur, if you've ever taken a video camera, pressed the 'Record' button and swung it around as fast as you could, then you played your recorded tape, You just saw a big blur of stuff. This is probably what you'll experience. I'll also think that you'll experience some dizziness and maybe you'll go unconscious, probably because of the G forces involved when 'running or walking' at the speed of light. If the store is 100m away, you'll probably get there in a jiffy.
 
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Darasen

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Objects can not travel faster than light. As speed increases mass increases thus the energy needed to accelerate increases. So to accelerate to light speed would require an infinite amount of energy.

Supposing you were traveling near the speed of light there would be the issue of time dilation. While from your reference you would make it to store quickly from the rest of the worlds reference you may not get there before closing.

As far as headlights at near light speed they would function normally.
 

Loneua Technologies

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You physically cannot travel faster then light. You would get killed by the G force. There is so much pressure on your body traveling at 600MPH imagine 671,080,888MPH (The speed of light). Not ever going to happen. But you would pretty much disintegrate instantaneously.
 
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mygorillanet

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Objects can not travel faster than light. As speed increases mass increases thus the energy needed to accelerate increases. So to accelerate to light speed would require an infinite amount of energy.

I disagree with the issue of objects not being able to travel faster than light, I agree with the increase of mass with speed, I disagree with the infinite amounts of energy required to reach these speeds.

Simple Physics lesson
-----------------------

Mass is the quantity of matter in a body regardless of its volume or of any forces acting on it. The inertial mass of a body is a measure of the body's resistance to acceleration by some external force. Inertial mass does not hinder acceleration of a body already in motion but hinders deceleration.

Gravitational mass however, increases with speed but its effect on acceleration can only be appreciated at very very high speeds. Do you remember Einstein's special theory of relativity that states, "mass is not strictly constant but increases with the speed", well the increase in mass can be calculated using the formula;

M = m[square root of ](1 - ( S[squared] / L[squared] ) )

where M = increase in mass, m = original mass at rest, S = speed at which we are travelling and L = speed of light.

However, if we want to travel faster than light, our speed should be greater than that of light. In this case, lets choose to travel at the speed of light. Our formula then gives;

M = m[square root of ](1 - ( L[squared] / L[squared] ) )

it thus follows that;

M = m[square root of ](1 - 1 )

which means, as long as your speed equals that of light, there is no increase in mass. Your speed has to be alot higher than that fo light in order for there to be any effect of mass on your speed.

there would be the issue of time dilation

I might be wrong, but what does time have to do with speed?
 

Loneua Technologies

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It has everything to do with speed,

In order to get to the speed of Light you need to Accelerate right?

If i am not mistaken then Acceleration is Average Velocity(Speed) over time.

He is saying that you would be traveling at such a speed that the world

would appear to be in slow motion "Time Dilation".
 

iholla

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You physically cannot travel faster then light. You would get killed by the G force. There is so much pressure on your body traveling at 600MPH imagine 671,080,888MPH (The speed of light). Not ever going to happen. But you would pretty much disintegrate instantaneously.

Since the constant is speed of light in a vacuum, lets eliminate the effects of g by assuming a long enough vacuum tunnel, no turns in it and you in a weightless state.

To enable you to travel at light speed in this tunnel, we eliminate most of the friction by using magnetic levitation.

No g effect, no friction. just you in your vehicle against light. what happens?

I am guessing, darkness in pitch black is what happens.
 

mygorillanet

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It has everything to do with speed,
In order to get to the speed of Light you need to Accelerate right? If i am not mistaken then Acceleration is Average Velocity(Speed) over time.He is saying that you would be traveling at such a speed that the world would appear to be in slow motion "Time Dilation".


I am aware that speed is distance covered over time. What I meant was the time 'dilation thingy'

If I am so fast for light, then At the beginning of my acceleration, I thnk things would get blurred and I wouldn't be able to make out any objects by which to have the illusion of slow motion.

I think, the blur would soon turn to a white colour and once I am way faster than light, the white might turn to black.

One can visually experience a supersonic breakthrough, what one visually experiences once hitting the 'light barrier' I can only wonder.
 

Franc0

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its possible to whoever said it couldnt, some german ressearches a few months back made an atom from point A to B traveling faster than light..

what did they see? just at atom from point A disapearing, and appearing in point B..

so answernig your question.. traveling at speed of light.. you will disappear in point A and appear in point B instantly
 

Soki

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its possible to whoever said it couldnt, some german ressearches a few months back made an atom from point A to B traveling faster than light..

what did they see? just at atom from point A disapearing, and appearing in point B..

so answernig your question.. traveling at speed of light.. you will disappear in point A and appear in point B instantly

Yea, I think that would happen. It isn't like you are going that fast. It is more like a disappear and reappear kind of way. Sorta like on Dragonball Z (which I have only seen a few times way back). Kind of like teleportation.
 

dirtracer36

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It would also depend on what type of store it is and what you are going there for. If the store was 100m away, you would get there in a fraction of a second. You would be moving at about one foot per nanosecond.

The g force would be more than a human body could endure. (You can experience brownout or greyout between 6 and 9 g characterized by temporary loss of colour vision, tunnel vision, or an inability to interpret verbal commands. This may lead to total loss of consciousness known as g-LOC.(g-induced Loss Of Consciousness) Formula One drivers usually experience 5 g while braking, 2 g while accelerating, and 4 to 6 g while cornering.)

When you got there, the deceleration force would not be any good for you either. (Formula One racing car driver David Purley survived an estimated 179.8 g in 1977 when he decelerated from 173 km/h (108 mph) to 0 in a distance of 66 cm (26 inches) after his throttle got stuck wide open and he hit a wall. Purley was subjected to the highest G-forces ever survived by a human being.)
 
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Nick2007

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As far as headlights at near light speed they would function normally.

I never said that. I said when you're going FASTER than the speed of light, not near it. If you were giving an example thats fine, if you thought I said that, please read my post again.

As far it comes to going from a blur, to white, and then to black, you're basically telling me you're losing consciousness. The G forces involved at the speed of light are crazy, but doesn't necessarily mean that a human will 'NEVER' be able to try it. In the 1930's and 1940's, pilots only dreamed of breaking the sound barrier. Most pilots at that time believed it was impossible. Look at us today in 2008, we have MiGs, Su's, Tu-160's, F-16s, and F-22s that can break the sounds barrier. No commercial plane can go over sound barrier? Think again, the Concorde could reach speeds of Mach 2.2, of course its out of service today.
Now, to help pilots survive massive G forces, the G suit was invented. So why not invent some clothes or device that will help humans survive massive G forces during the speed of light. Obviously today we think its impossible... but we just haven't done enough research and haven't opened up enough technology yet. Time Dilation is hard to explain, but gravity has a lot to do with it. Basically our bodies grow on steady G forces, in space, people can't grow as easily, its zero gravity. Well they can, but not as planned. Lets say a spaceship is going faster than the speed of light with humans in it to another galaxy. To the viewers perspective, you think that you will reach there in 2 weeks. On Earth's perspective of time, you'd think the spaceship will get there in 100,000 light years. When the spaceship reaches the galaxy, the humans can walk out (if they find a planet), and see that to themselves about 2 weeks passed. The humans didn't necessarily get older, gravity prevented. On earth meanwhile, it is the year 100,008. We aren't 100% sure of how dilation 'works', but aging and gravity is a good theory.
 
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Fahad

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Assuming this street was in a vacuum, you would be travelling 187370.28625 miles per second (2.99792458e8 metres per second). This means you would theoretically circle right round the earth 7.52444270537376187426 times in one second.
However, this is not necessarily true.
In theory, you would continue to accelerate, as you are in a vacuum with no air resistance or gravity to add to the equation. After the first round, apart from having trampled the shop you were heading to, you would take off due to the continuing acceleration and lack of gravity. In another half second, you will have gone into orbit, and will be circling the earth from outer space.
You would then break out of the earths orbit, and later the suns, becoming a sun yourself.
Soon, rocks and planets would orbit around you (none bearing life; you don't provide energy).
At least that's what I think.
 

iholla

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He he, tha above post just cracked me up:))

All the contributed points are well taken. However, just assuming the issues with G, time-dilatin, orbiting etc were non existent, what do you think happens when one travels faster than light?
 
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dwd2000

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Until someone actually does it, I think it is impossible to guess. There was a time people thought the universe rotated around the earth, and that the earth was flat.
 

blueypanda

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If it was possible to travel faster then light without negative side affects like G's, then I think several things would happen.
1. You just made a lot of people angry because you proved they were wrong
2. You would be cramping up badly because you just ran a hundred miles in less then a second.
3. You would have legs the size of buildings which would keep you from getting inside the shop door, making you so mad you kick the shop's wall destroying it.
But in real life you would likely create a black hole, or rip the fabric of reality, or something like that.
Also assuming you could go faster then light in real life there would a great strain on your body, maybe even with a special anti-G force suit. Of course the way you view the world would be weird. It maybe like almost going back in time because the light that reflected surrounding world would not be able to be absorb by your eyes. Of course that does not mean actually going back in time. You are not going to meet Mr. T-rex by doing this. Any time difference like you see in sci-fi stories where people in a ship spend weeks going to another galaxy then it turns out they been actually traveling for years would probably not happen because of the short distance you would have traveled. Of course there are the points I said above about the black holes and stuff. Any thing could happen when you try to do the impossible.
 

Dan

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I expect if you had nothing to protect you then you would die....
 

oiwio

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I know everything would move slow when you move that fast, but isnt there also a theory that if you travel faster than the speed of light then you will travel back in time.

And even if you wouldnt die from moving that fast, youre clothes would disintergrate and youd be going to the store naked :lol:
 

Ultim8

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Its quiet simple really.....

It would all depend on the speed of accelaration as to this but say 0-speed of light was instant and you stopped at the shop door in and instant, You could then see your self standing where you started for a split second as the light that makes up you physical being would still be there.

Its a bit like stars you look at them now but alot of them are not there anymore but the distants is light years away and the light is still going.

:)
 
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