- #1
Dr Lots-o'watts
- 646
- 0
I'm amazed at how often the question arises, and how many people are interested in "faster-than-light" travel. So in anticipation of the next passer-byes who may want to ask the question, here is a preemptive, answer (yeah, a jeopardy-type thread I guess), just to show how it can make perfect layman sense that it is the physical speed limit. (I don't claim it to be rigorous.)
1. Either the speed of light is finite or infinite. Experiments have shown that it is finite.
2. In vacuum, light interacts with nothing, so it cannot slow down or accelerate. It is thus a constant.
3. Since light has no mass (less than anything else observed), even common sense would suggest that anything with mass will be slower.
So in summary: Things have mass, that's why nothing travels faster than light. Unless you're writing science-fiction novels or seriously studying the field, that's all there is to it.
1. Either the speed of light is finite or infinite. Experiments have shown that it is finite.
2. In vacuum, light interacts with nothing, so it cannot slow down or accelerate. It is thus a constant.
3. Since light has no mass (less than anything else observed), even common sense would suggest that anything with mass will be slower.
So in summary: Things have mass, that's why nothing travels faster than light. Unless you're writing science-fiction novels or seriously studying the field, that's all there is to it.