Speed of light questioned

[Reddog]

Awesome! I knew that the speed of light wasn't a limit, but no one else seemed to think so. I wonder what the other dimensions are...

[hallam2003]

I didn;t even know that was a constraint. too bad i didn't get into physics next year. sounds cool. what is the 5th demention? anyone?

[Shinji-kun]

Reddog

Just to tell you the speed of light is not the fastest we can make something travel. Anything that is already going to speed of light, like photons and some forms of electromagnetic waves, can have the speed increased by passing it through a diffraction gradient. Anything that is below the speed of light, like sound waves or a bullet, can be increased to the speed of light but no further. When something with mass reaches the speed of light the mass becomes exponential. But things that lack mass, like a photon are not constrained by this, exponential mass, problem and can exceed the speed of light. The speeding up of light has been done is several labs throughout the US. We have knowen that the speed of light could be broken for a while.

[Cerberusss]

if photons have no mass as you say, why do black holes exist? the whole concept of a black hole is that something has enough mass (and therefore gravity) so that nothing, not even light could escape. why does light get bent as it passes close to a celestial body on its way from a star to our observation. the effect causes a slight "flare" of the light from the star in question. i'm not saying photons are heavy mind you, just that they do have a discrete mass. also, only within the last year has the spped of light been broken in a lab, though some call it an optical illusion.
as far as other dimensions are concerned, who knows. maybe energy levels are their own dimensions.. it boggles the mind.

[BBA]

When something with mass reaches the speed of light the mass becomes exponential.

-Not exactly

When something with mass reaches the speed of light, it's mass apears to become infinite relative to the observed position. ( That darned relativity thing again ).

The object itself actually is converted from mass into energy. The faster it travels, the more the balance is shifted to energy.

The overall system energy is still consistant ( energy conservation law ) with the decrease in mass ( energy=mass times speed of light squared )

EDIT: Goofed that up didn't I...

BTW: It is accepted that photons do have a mass. Any object must have a mass to have energy.

[This message has been edited by BBA (edited 08-17-2001).]

[newbie~wan]

Doesn't E=mc^2?

NOT m=Ec^2 like you suggested?

[Banti]

Kind of interesting responce comparison. Here (at Sysopt) we are talking about mass to energy equations, and the msg board at Yahoo has people jumping up and down about God and such.

***Not that I have a problem with a person jumping up and down about God, but these guys are the kind of religous people that make me upset (Read as "If you do not think like me you will burn" kind of people).

Banti

[kriisten]

Personally I have always been facinated by physics and space. Think of the implications of other dimensions? Time travel, all that sci-fi stuff about bending space and time. I wish I was better with numbers, I would have loved to become a scientist!

[moebius]

I was about to post an explanation, but i realised BBA beat me to it ;-)
He's right, photons do have mass. Anything that has energy (as quantum mechanics stands right now) has mass.
Also, the increase in mass when you approach the speed of light is a relative thing. It won't be noticeable to the object that's approaching the speed of light(let's say A), it will only be noticeable to the object (let's say B) observing A.

[Jeffers247]

As photons are the physical/wave manifestation of light then surely their speed is, by definition, the 'local' speed of light. Can photons travel slower than the speed of light? If you increase the speed of photons are you increasing the 'local' speed of light rather than pushing something faster than an absolute speed of light value value? And what the hell does that do to slower objects in the vicinity of the speed of light increase? E=MC^2 etc Anyway, back to burning in hell...

[DiscoLando]

Who said that discussing matters of science and matters of God are mutually exclusive? Personally, I long for the day when the 'line' between Theology and Science is not simply broken down, but obliterated.

[tantone]

Scientists can only explain so much and then it just gets fuzzy. The big bang...what was there before that? Where did the mass come from? How was there anything to "bang" to begin with? Space is infinite. No end?? How do we know? And if there IS and end, what's on the other side?

I'm not a religious person, and I really don't believe in "God", so I'm not trying to state that He is what's on the other side. I just find this whole thing fascinating.

Multiple dimensions?? Are we talking another you living in a different dimension? Anyone read Timeline by Michael Crichton?

[This message has been edited by tantone (edited 08-17-2001).]

[SickPup404]

If anyone is interested, I read a great book by Robert Heinlein 20 or so years ago titled "The Number of the Beast" and in it, there are some good points about the blurring of the line between theology and such and the interpretations/translations of the many versions of The Bible. A very interesting read... (IMHO)

[LiLRiceBoi]

School starts in 2 weeks, i'll have to ask my physics teacher then. This is confusing now

[BBA]

Ok...I have no explanation as to what I was typing when I got the Einstein equation wrong

Theology...Mythology...Scientology....myheadacheol ogy

God has nothing to do with the speed of light theory.