# Fast enough clocks to beat the speed of light

1. Jan 27, 2005

### Dilbert

fast enough clocks to beat the "speed of light"

fast clocks, how fast?

the speed of light is approx 300 000 000 m/s, is there some way to translate that into an effect that can be compared to the "speed" of a clock. and if so, are there any fast enough clocks to beat the "speed of light"

if there are any clocks, please list them.

And please do not list an atomic clock if you have not done any math (if that is possible)

2. Jan 27, 2005

### dextercioby

What do you mean by:

You mean clocks that are moving??There are tons in the Gedankenexperimente in SR...If not,then what do u mean??

Daniel.

3. Jan 27, 2005

### Dilbert

well, a clock that can tick faster than the speed of light.

i do not know how to "translate" m/s to "ticks" a second.

4. Jan 27, 2005

### dextercioby

The "ticking" of clocks has nothing to so with the speed of light...One is measured in Hz (which means "oscillations per second") and the other one is measured in $$\displaystyle{ms^{-1}}$$.

Daniel.

5. Jan 27, 2005

### Dilbert

yes, i know that. and hence i was wondering if it can be "translated".

6. Jan 27, 2005

### dextercioby

What do you mean "translated"??Time intervals can be nomatter how big (even infinite) or small (10^{-23}s in nuclear interactions),while the speed cannot exceed "c"...

Please be a little more specific.

Daniel.

7. Jan 27, 2005

### Dilbert

okay, lets start here:

you would need a rather precise clock to determine the exact 299 792 458 m/s of the light, would one not?

8. Jan 27, 2005

### marcus

speculative "translating" between different types of physical quantity (between energy and frequency, between energy and mass, between temperature and voltage, whatever...etc. etc.)

sometimes turn out OK, and when they do it is usually because of
the emergence of some kind of "natural unit"

a "clock ticking" usually means a FREQUENCY

one way to restate your question is this "Is there any upper limit on frequency which is analogous to how the speed of light is an upper limit on speed?"

In fact there is a very high frequency called "Planck frequency" which no manmade device has ever attained and which may be thought of as an upper limit on frequency of electromagnetic waves or physical vibrations

something traveling the speed of light is, in effect, advancing in Planck length steps at Planck frequency
in a naive picture of space broken up into little plancklength steps then to go the speed of light one would have to advance one step every plancktime tick of the Planckfrequency clock.

then one could indeed speak of Planck frequency as equivalent (in that limited sense) to the speed of light

but that is only in a a naive imaginary case of a discrete space, I feel sure that things are not that simple (one can probably prove by ordinary relativity that it is not) but something vaguely like that might be

so at the level of nature's built-in system of units (planck units) there is some analogy between speed and frequency----dont want to encourage you or anyone to pursue this seriously however

9. Jan 27, 2005

### Dilbert

i assure you, i am not trying to "stop" time, nor any kind of pseudo science that goes against Einstein. :)
I am actually working on an unrelated technology that became more difficult than i anticipated.

i am insterested in knowing if there is any clock that meets my demands or if it is possible to interconnect clocks so precisly that it would appear that they could reach higher frequency (than the light?)