If you're going backwards in time at the speed of sound just make sure to move a little to the left before you get back to yourself. That'd make an awful mess.
So apparently time stops at the speed of light?
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Interstellar space travel would only be possible, according to the laws of physics and space-time that we currently know, through the use of wormholes. That's not to say that it's impossible for an engine that's capable of interstellar travel to exist, we just don't know the science behind such a machine.Inverse Skies said:
Basically, as far as we know, it's either wormholes or spacecraft designed to be manned by generations of astronauts over several hundred (or thousand) years.
Well, you can't really say that time stops at the speed of light. At the very least relativity means that the people at the speed of light and the people watching will perceive the relativistic effects differently and will both be right.
At the speed of light mass becomes infinite. That's probably the least of the reasons that we say that nothing can exceed the speed of light.
Finally, the speed of light is constant, and thus unaffected by perceived speed; light doesn't slow down or speed up. Ever.
At the speed of light mass becomes infinite. That's probably the least of the reasons that we say that nothing can exceed the speed of light.
Finally, the speed of light is constant, and thus unaffected by perceived speed; light doesn't slow down or speed up. Ever.
You have it backwards. Everyone else moves faster from the perspective of the person travelling at near-light speeds, so we can assume that at very close to the speed of light you will reach the end of time in a few of your personal seconds. "Time" moves slower for you.poiumty said:
Think the faster you travel, the less you appear to have aged when you return home.
Well... you shouldn't have put the 'Ever' in there - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lene_Hau she has been able to effectively stop light for about 1 second then start it's movement up again without losing any. The speed of light is constant, but light it's self can move at different speeds with intervention.the1ultimate said:
this post will give me a +600 nerd rating. yay.
Time isn't stopped for other things. for us it would seem that it takes 8 minutes for light to reach us from the sun. the light itself doesn't have any time. the time isn't stopped, you just can't see it would also make sense, but then incoming light wouldn't be stopped, so if you looked forward you would see time advancing. though we don't have the technology to see if that is actually true, nor will we possibly ever have. however, we have proven that time goes slower when you're moving. Einstein's relativity theory explains it like this:
you imagine a spaceship moving in orbit, being monitored from the ground. it has a clock that works with a laser bouncing between two mirrors. the distance between these mirrors is for example 1 meter. so in one cycle, the light travels 2 meters within the ship. from the ground however, the ship was seen moving 2 meters during that cycle, so for us the light traveled 2 meters up and down, but ALSO 2 meters sidewards. therefore the distance covered by the light was LARGER from their point of view. though, light always has the same speed (distance per time unit), so in 1 cycle, the light according the spaceship covered 2 meters, and the light according to earth traveled 2x sqrt(2) (the swuare root of 2) in the same time. so on earth it takes light less time to travel 2 meters then in the spaceship, so time on the spaceship seems to be slower then the time on earth.
nerd rating applied. the world hates me now ;D.
Time isn't stopped for other things. for us it would seem that it takes 8 minutes for light to reach us from the sun. the light itself doesn't have any time. the time isn't stopped, you just can't see it would also make sense, but then incoming light wouldn't be stopped, so if you looked forward you would see time advancing. though we don't have the technology to see if that is actually true, nor will we possibly ever have. however, we have proven that time goes slower when you're moving. Einstein's relativity theory explains it like this:
you imagine a spaceship moving in orbit, being monitored from the ground. it has a clock that works with a laser bouncing between two mirrors. the distance between these mirrors is for example 1 meter. so in one cycle, the light travels 2 meters within the ship. from the ground however, the ship was seen moving 2 meters during that cycle, so for us the light traveled 2 meters up and down, but ALSO 2 meters sidewards. therefore the distance covered by the light was LARGER from their point of view. though, light always has the same speed (distance per time unit), so in 1 cycle, the light according the spaceship covered 2 meters, and the light according to earth traveled 2x sqrt(2) (the swuare root of 2) in the same time. so on earth it takes light less time to travel 2 meters then in the spaceship, so time on the spaceship seems to be slower then the time on earth.
nerd rating applied. the world hates me now ;D.
You're right, and I violated a key scientific principle as well: never talk in certainties if you don't want to be laughed at a couple of years down the track.cyro_349 said:
A real scientist would have been able to use ambiguous technobabble to avoid this sort thing.
When you look up into the sky, you can see our sun as it was 7 or 8 minutes ago. So, you literally want to look 8 minutes into the past? Just look at our sun.Plazmatic said:
If you want to look back several decades, you need only look at other stars. If you're moving faster than light itself, then that means that you're moving faster than our own perception of time.
Actually, light slows down depending on what medium it travels through. You can also bend light. Why else do you think light gets re-directed into black holes. Furthermore, light accelerates the closer it gets to the singularity.the1ultimate said:
Lol, true.the1ultimate said:
Sorry, but: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light#In_a_medium the 'Speed of Light' is a constant, measured at 299,792,458 meters per second, but the light itself may, on a lot of occasions, actually move slower than the speed of light.SilverScorpion said:
The speed of light never moves slower than the speed of light, though. Sure it may actually slow down, but the speed of light is always the speed of light. Haha it's a bit confusing at first. Think of it more as "That's the fastest thing ever, and it's called "The Speed of Light." Whatever medium it travels through, nothing is faster.cyro_349 said:
Um... I may have read this the wrong way but did you basically just say something along the lines of: An apple is an apple, sure you can paint it pink, but it's still an apple.Zer_ said:
Yes, the speed of light is always the speed of light. I guess that I meant the maximum speed of light which we have been able to measure, or 'c' if you will.
Again, you shouldn't say 'Nothing is faster' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than-light#Tachyons yes it is only theoretical, but leave yourself some wiggle room, either say nothing can pass the c speed (must be either faster or slower), or say that we haven't discovered anything faster than c.
Yes, because time is relative, if time stopped, all time would freeze and no-one would be aware that time had stopped. If you mean, you invented a device which stopped time for everyone else; it wouldn't actually stop time, it would just accellerate your movement and perspective to an incredibly fast speed (would need both to be increased or you would either move at normal speeds, or see time advance before your eyes if you were still able to even percieve it).ProfessorLayton said:
At least that is my understanding...
I find it hard to believe that time could ever completely stop. I also understand where you're coming from because I saw this pretty bad movie called ClockStoppers as a kid where they explained this in an extremely watered down version but you could still get the basic understanding. But the reason I asked that question was to make sure the understanding about this theory... if time stopped, then how would something that is actually traveling at the speed of light get anywhere? And chances are, it's not the fastest thing ever created, it's just the fastest thing we know of.cyro_349 said:
Ok, I need to tell you a little bit about perception. If you're traveling at the speed of light or even faster, normal light cannot reach you in time. This means that in general terms of perception, time outside your ship/machine/rubber duck will have seemed to stop. This also translates into "traveling in time" because you travel ahead of the light wave.Plazmatic said:
Let me give a example:
Say that you were orbiting a planet as it was exploding, and you went FTL for a short time just as it blew up. As you're traveling faster than light, where ever you go to will be a set amount of time "ahead" of the light, so you will be able to see the action at the same time that you were at the location, maybe even seeing yourself there.
i am happy to be seeing another point of view. but something still confuses me, how do you create matter from only pure energy. im not saying its not possible, but im curious as to how it actually happen. the electron to positrons didnt make much sense to me, but it doesnt hurt to add impute. also, i still don't think that something can be created from nothing. sorry, im going to need more proof for your info. so put down a link for me. i do like being proved wrong when it comes to this stuff, shows that we all have something to learn.blalien said:
Man that makes me chuckle every ti-YOUR WORDS ARE AS EMPTY AS YOUR FUTUREDaystar Clarion said:
It seems a bit difficult to get my head around. Read The Forever War [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forever_War] by Joe Haldeman. It is one of my favourite sci-fi's (have to read it again actually) and in it he describes it quite well. Although in his instance he travels through a wormhole-like time collapsar which propels you 1000's of light years in a split second. It is really interesting and he had college degree in Physics so he know what he's on about.
I think it is actually called Time Dilation [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation#Time_dilation_and_space_flight].