- #1
MasterZoran
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Hi everyone - I am having trouble getting my brother to wrap his head around why you cannot move faster than the speed of light.
My little brother has said that he believes eventually we will have technology that will allow FTL travel - I agree with this but I told him that IF it happens it will not be because of us literally moving FTL, it will be because we figure out how to bend space to allow us to cover great distances in a short time (think of the ant and the thread, then folding the thread - this is how I believe FTL travel *may* work)
I tried to explain to him E=MC2 and diminishing returns - how the more energy you put into an object the more mass it has, so even if you could come up with an "infinite" energy supply and were to pour "infinite" amount of energy into an object the object's mass would increase proportionately with diminishing returns so you would never actually reach light speed -
he seems to think that eventually - some day we will overcome this limit - I told him the universe would probably break
can anyone link me to a good article or help me come up with some way to explain why light speed is a hard limit - why it cannot ever be exceeded by objects with mass
-ps, I'm sure many of the terms / ideas I am using are not perfectly accurate - I'm just generalizing some advanced concepts for the sake of explanation based on my limited understanding of special relativity - I am no scientist
I might even be the one who is wrong - but I would love to learn why/why not.
thanks!
Edit: The gist of what I am getting at is in the definition of "Traveling faster than light speed" - If you define it as moving from one place to another quicker than light would get there I do believe that possible.
If you define it as accelerating too and past the speed of light I believe that is not possible, now or ever
My little brother has said that he believes eventually we will have technology that will allow FTL travel - I agree with this but I told him that IF it happens it will not be because of us literally moving FTL, it will be because we figure out how to bend space to allow us to cover great distances in a short time (think of the ant and the thread, then folding the thread - this is how I believe FTL travel *may* work)
I tried to explain to him E=MC2 and diminishing returns - how the more energy you put into an object the more mass it has, so even if you could come up with an "infinite" energy supply and were to pour "infinite" amount of energy into an object the object's mass would increase proportionately with diminishing returns so you would never actually reach light speed -
he seems to think that eventually - some day we will overcome this limit - I told him the universe would probably break
can anyone link me to a good article or help me come up with some way to explain why light speed is a hard limit - why it cannot ever be exceeded by objects with mass
-ps, I'm sure many of the terms / ideas I am using are not perfectly accurate - I'm just generalizing some advanced concepts for the sake of explanation based on my limited understanding of special relativity - I am no scientist
I might even be the one who is wrong - but I would love to learn why/why not.
thanks!
Edit: The gist of what I am getting at is in the definition of "Traveling faster than light speed" - If you define it as moving from one place to another quicker than light would get there I do believe that possible.
If you define it as accelerating too and past the speed of light I believe that is not possible, now or ever
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