speed of light question (hypothetical)

Dont know, maybe tachyon fields will lead you somewhere

http://www.macrobiotic.org/health11.html

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Re: speed of light question (hypothetical)

OGIONIK wrote:

If something did go faster than light, would it have an effect similar to a sonic boom?

Yes it does.
And you can see it too.
One thing to remember is that the speed of light is the speed of a photon in a perfect vacuum.
Nothing, absolutely nothing can go faster than a photon in a perfect vacuum.

However, there are plenty of things that can go faster than a photon in a medium such as glass or water for example.
Cerenkov Radiation is the "sonic boom" of particles going faster than light in that medium.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerenkov_radiation
It nakes a lovely blue glow.
Cool

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I wonder if we just havent discovered a particale capable of going faster than light yet, it doesnt make sense that speed would have a limit.

but im not a scientist so meh, ill let them make the laws. Smile

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OGIONIK wrote:

I wonder if we just havent discovered a particale capable of going faster than light yet, it doesnt make sense that speed would have a limit.

It doesn't make any sense which is why it was all the more surprising to find out that there IS a speed limit.

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FUNNY THNG, JUST READ AN ARTICLE THAT THEY HAVE IN FACT EXCEEDED THE SPEED OF LIGHT.

ill look for it and ill post it too some of youz might beez interested.

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The speed of light was first exceeded by Raymond Chao in 1993. His experiments have since been repoduced several times by multiple teams of researchers, most notably the French. Choa has pointed out he believes this has more to do with the quirkiness of the quantum theory than it does a violation of special relativity.

Just a note: as currently formulated SR says that you cannot send a signal (as would be defined by information theory) faster than the speed of light. Actually in QM every particle has amplitudes that exceed c including infinite velocity. If you were doing sum over histories using feynman diagrams, for example. You can think of these values as either being cancled out or as higher order quantities whose values approach zero.

It is good to remember that Einstein did not come down from the mountain with a pair of Special Relativity stone tablets, one line of which said: thou shall not exceed the speed of light. It is simply that in the formalism of the theory you get nonsensical answers to the equations if you do exceed c. There are at least three plausible reasons for this: it really is not physically possible, the accepted conditions are incomplete or incorrect, the theory is incomplete and a more complete theory will clarify this point.

I am sure none of this will play well on A2K but it is current science.

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TheCorrectResponse wrote:

The speed of light was first exceeded by Raymond Chao in 1993. His experiments have since been repoduced several times by multiple teams of researchers, most notably the French. Choa has pointed out he believes this has more to do with the quirkiness of the quantum theory than it does a violation of special relativity.

By the way Choa is not some crackpot. He is very respected as both a theoretician and an experimenter, who has made important contributions to QM.

Just a note: as currently formulated SR says that you cannot send a signal (as would be defined by information theory) faster than the speed of light. Actually in QM every particle has amplitudes that exceed c including infinite velocity. If you were doing sum over histories using feynman diagrams, for example. You can think of these values as either being cancled out or as higher order quantities whose values approach zero.

It is good to remember that Einstein did not come down from the mountain with a pair of Special Relativity stone tablets, one line of which said: thou shall not exceed the speed of light. It is simply that in the formalism of the theory you get nonsensical answers to the equations if you do exceed c. There are at least three plausible reasons for this: it really is not physically possible, the accepted conditions are incomplete or incorrect, the theory is incomplete and a more complete theory will clarify this point.

I am sure none of this will play well on A2K but it is current science.

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TheCorrectResponse wrote:

I am sure none of this will play well on A2K ...

Why ?

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http://www.newscientist.com/channel/fundamentals/mg19526173.500-photons-flout-the-light-speed-limit.html

Very interesting stuff !
Looking forward to reading more about this.

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But what is the speed of dark?

Lightspeed is the limit for information distribution in a relativistic bound field. So if its not information, is its not relativistically bound - e.g. quantum foam, planck sized packets or environments think 10^-35 metres or seconds or smaller units of reality, and not dealing with energy densities above 10^35 GeV - possibly environments ruled by quantum gravity's laws - lightspeed is a practical limit by today's understanding of physics.

During inflation - under a quantum gravity framework the speed limit likely exceeded 50,000 c - so remember your field speed limit is field dependent.

What would happen if you keep focusing / applying energy on a object with mass to make it go faster - could you reach or exceed lightspeed?

Under relativistic physics - the answer is no. But the boundaries of where relativistic physics that set this limit start to break down are often not well understood or comprehended. Raise an objects speeds to a point where its energy density start to get to the heirarchy level (10^14 - 10 ^ 19 GeV) and you may see field effects that alter relativistic physics speed limits as thw relativistic field breaks down. Reach energy density concentrations above 10 ^ 35 GeV and you might close spacetime (black hole travelling at c) or collapse the four forces back into a region governed by quantum gravity and only its limits.

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Isn't a thought faster than the speed of light...wait..A thought is faster than the speed of light. Not thinking, but thought.

Also, maybe this has something to do with it. The vacuum power in a black hole is so powerful/fast, that not even light can escape. Light moves pretty fast, but it can't outrun the black hole, and blackholes don't make any noise that we know of. The best way to put it is pretend you sucked up a light bulb with a very short hose on a shop vac. You would still be able to see the light coming out the end of the tube. Now, if that vacuum were as powerful as a blackhole, you wouldn't be able to.

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Well- if you were travelling at the speed of light, as Einstein imagined himself to be, and took a piss in the direction you were facing I don't see how the jet wouldn't be going faster than the speed of light.

You would get your trousers all messed up otherwise.

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speed of light question (hypothetical)

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