Can Light Exceed the Speed of C? Exploring the Possibility of Accelerating Light

[idiosyncratic]

Hi! Its me again. I randomly sat up in bed today, after having a nice dream filled with nice things, and my first thought is this questions:

Is there any instance where light can go faster then C?
and/or
Is it possible to accelerate light past C?

My attempt at a solution: Since the technical definition of C is the constant speed of light, it probably can't. But I still wonder. You can probably tell I'm not a physics major, because these questions will probably be easily answered.

 

[dacruick]

no light can't go faster than c. and neither can anything else to our knowledge. I think the only way to accelerate light is to put it through different mediums. but in empty space like a vacuum, light's speed is c.

And I apologize in advance for my physicsness not allowing me to let this slide. c is lowercase:P

 

[dacruick]

C is capacitance. and something else I am sure.

 

[idiosyncratic]

sorry about putting c as an uppercase. :-) It just seems like such an important number that it should be an uppercase. I do that with other words too. If something seems important, I automatically put it as an uppercase without thinking about it. Thanks for responding!

 

[dacruick]

haha no worries. Its not like I didn't know what you were talking about.

Another concept for you to think about:

imagine you have something traveling at the speed of light in one direction. and something else traveling at the speed of light in the opposite direction. what is the difference in their speeds? its still the speed of light. that one always messed with me.

 

[idiosyncratic]

imagine you have something traveling at the speed of light in one direction. and something else traveling at the speed of light in the opposite direction. what is the difference in their speeds? its still the speed of light. that one always messed with me.

That's one concept that's been screwing me up for the last day. :-) It was in a physics lecture my family and I watched yesterday. Today I think we're going to return to that conundrum and further explore the implications of it.

 

[dacruick]

oh man, sounds like you have a pretty cool family. do you mind posting on this thread tomorrow letting me know what you learned?

 

[uart]

Is there any instance where light can go faster than C?

Yes, light is always faster than Carbon. :tongue:

 

[dacruick]

lmao see, another capital c. so we have capacitance and carbon so far. any others?

 

[idiosyncratic]

Yes, light is always faster than Carbon. :tongue:

yeah, I meant c, not C. oops.

oh man, sounds like you have a pretty cool family. do you mind posting on this thread tomorrow letting me know what you learned?

Sure, I'll post back once we watch it. :-) My Dad's pretty into physics, so he kind of wrangled us into it. Surprisingly I started enjoying it, which is probably why I end up asking stupid questions. lol. Ahh well, even stupid questions are better then no questions.

 

[idiosyncratic]

lmao see, another capital c. so we have capacitance and carbon so far. any others?

the Roman numeral for 100... the first note in a C major scale... can't think of anything else. lol

 

[idiosyncratic]

oh man, sounds like you have a pretty cool family. do you mind posting on this thread tomorrow letting me know what you learned?

Usually I understand the physics lesson, but I was confused this time. :-) I didn't understand the guys demo. They were supposedly talking about how light is measured at c no matter how you are moving relative to it, but I think he switched topics pretty quickly, to the time slowing down when you move faster relative to something. Maybe its the same topic? It seemed like he got so caught up in his illustration, that he neglected to explain it thoroughly. Know of any good books that might explain this to me better?

 

[BL4CKCR4Y0NS]

lmao see, another capital c. so we have capacitance and carbon so far. any others?

Celsius, Centigrade?

 

[Andy Resnick]

lmao see, another capital c. so we have capacitance and carbon so far. any others?

Coulombs. 'C' is also a measure of dilutions in homeopathic solutions and a unit of paper sizes:

http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictC.html

 

[Redbelly98]

"Circuit", when used in IC (integrated circuit) or PCB (printed circuit board).

 

[Lsos]

lmao see, another capital c. so we have capacitance and carbon so far. any others?

...if I'm not mistaken?

 

[KeNGZ]

well if you really want to understand why,
you can find your answer in Special Relativity.
It's pretty simple,
and it shows that no matter how, nothing can exceed the speed of light,c.
or else the physics law will be violated.

 

[fluidistic]

I think the only way to accelerate light is to put it through different mediums.

In fact light always travel at c. If I'm not mistaken light get absorbed by transparent materials and then emitted, absorbed, emitted and so on so that it takes longer for light to reach a distance light in vacuum would do in a lesser time. But photons or whatever light is, always travel to c.
Any physicist correct me please. I'm just a physics student.