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plum
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How might the speed of light be altered and what implications might this have for space travel?
plum said:what if there were a device attached to a spaceship that could speed up light around the ship?
plum said:But how could the speed of light particles so coincidentally also be the divine "maximum speed that the universe allows"?
Is it just because we have yet to discover things that go faster than light? Does the maximum speed that observable matter goes automatically mean that no matter can be "pushed" faster than it has ever gone before?
plum said:How might the speed of light be altered and what implications might this have for space travel?
plum said:How might the speed of light be altered and what implications might this have for space travel?
Nenad said:we wouldn't need to speed up light in order to have fantastic space travel.
Nenad said:If we wanted to get on the other side of the universe, it would take us 0.00001seconds if we were to be traveling at the speed of light.
russ_watters said:Clarification: the speed of light is constant. It does not change when light is refracted. In refraction, light is absorbed and re-emitted making for the appearance that it has slowed down.
Nenad said:When traveling at high speeds:
[tex] d_o = d \sqrt{1- \frac{v^2}{c^2}} [/tex]
[tex] d_o [/tex] is the distance experienced by the traveler, and [tex] d [/tex] is the actual distance passed.
Nenad said:If we wanted to get on the other side of the universe, it would take us 0.00001seconds if we were to be traveling at the speed of light.
True, but irrelevant to Nenad's point. Yes, as seen by us, it takes light many years to traverse galactic distances. But if we traveled at near light speed, that distance would shrink to a mere pittance. To our clocks it would take almost no time at all.rgoudie said:Of course, this is not the case in real life. It takes light more than 1 second to travel from the Moon to the Earth, let alone across the Universe.
In fact, light particles may travel for billions of years on their journeys through the Universe.
plum said:Yes, but speeding up light might allow relatively great speeds in which the infinite mass/ infinite energy problem could be solved (not to mention the chronology problem). What made me think of this was the conjecture, using the Varying Speed of Light theory, that there may be vast "superhighways" in deep space used by aliens for interstellar (intergalactic?) travel wherein light actually travels much faster. If the fundamental properties of these areas could be measured, could they not be replicated?
Doc Al (modified by rgoudie) said:True, but irrelevant to Nenad's point. Yes, as seen by us, it takes light many years to traverse galactic distances. But if we traveled at near light speed, that time passage would shrink to a mere pittance. To our clocks it would take almost no time at all.
Nenad said:we wouldn't need to speed up light in order to have fantastic space travel.
I meant it as I said it. The distance shrinks to a pittance. Of course it doesn't take much time to traverse such a small distance.rgoudie said:If I effect the modification above in red, then I understand what was meant. The time experienced by the entity traveling at c.
Not sure what you mean. Observers moving across the galaxy at near light speed would measure the galactic distance to be severely contracted.bino said:still the distance would not change.
rgoudie said:Of course, this is not the case in real life. It takes light more than 1 second to travel from the Moon to the Earth, let alone across the Universe.
In fact, light particles may travel for billions of years on their journeys through the Universe.
-Ray.
I don't know where you learned your special relativity (if you even did ) But the distance DOES change with varying speed.bino said:no the distance between two points would be the same no matter where you are. it would just take less time from point to point going at or near light speed.
bino said:still the distance would not change.
bino said:maybe I am not understanding what your trying to say but if I am traveling in a car going 100 mph past two trees 20 feet apart from each other. then i go past again but only go 1 mph the distance between the two trees is still 20 feet
pervect said:bino, distance is not an invariant. It depends on the observer.