Skip to main content

What if we travel with the speed of light ?

 When we were kids, we were amazed that Superman could travel faster than a speeding bullet. We could even picture him, chasing down a projectile fired from a weapon, his right arm outstretched, his cape rippling behind him. If he traveled at half the bullet's speed, the rate at which the bullet moved away from him would halve. If he did indeed travel faster than the bullet, he would overtake it and lead the way. Go, Superman! In other words, Superman's aerial antics obeyed Newton's views of space and time : that the positions and motions of objects in space should all be measurable relative to an absolute, nonmoving frame of reference.

universe


In the early 1900s, scientists held firm to the Newtonian view of the world. Then a German-born mathematician and physicist by the name of Albert Einstein came along and changed everything. In 1905, Einstein published his theory of special relativity, which put forth a startling idea: There is no preferred frame of reference. Everything, even time, is relative. Two important principles underpinned his theory. The first stated that the same laws of physics apply equally in all constantly moving frames of reference. The second said that the speed of light -- about 186,000 miles per second (300,000 kilometers per second) -- is constant and independent of the observer's motion or the source of light. According to Einstein, if Superman were to chase a light beam at half the speed of light, the beam would continue to move away from him at exactly the same speed.

light


These concepts seem deceptively simple, but they have some mind-bending implications. One of the biggest is represented by Einstein's famous equation, E = mc², where E is energy, m is mass and c is the speed of light. According to this equation, mass and energy are the same physical entity and can be changed into each other. Because of this equivalence, the energy an object has due to its motion will increase its mass. In other words, the faster an object moves, the greater its mass. This only becomes noticeable when an object moves really quickly. If it moves at 10 percent the speed of light, for example, its mass will only be 0.5 percent more than normal. But if it moves at 90 percent the speed of light, its mass will double.

space


As an object approaches the speed of light, its mass rises precipitously. If an object tries to travel 186,000 miles per second, its mass becomes infinite, and so does the energy required to move it. For this reason, no normal object can travel as fast or faster than the speed of light.

We covered the original question, but what if we tweaked it to say, "What if you traveled almost as fast as the speed of light?" In that case, you would experience some interesting effects. One famous result is something physicists call  time dilation , which describes how time runs more slowly for objects moving very rapidly. If you flew on a rocket traveling 90 percent of light-speed, the passage of time for you would be halved. Your watch would advance only 10 minutes, while more than 20 minutes would pass for an Earthbound observer.

darksite


You would also experience some strange visual consequences. One such consequence is called aberration, and it refers to how your whole field of view would shrink down to a tiny, tunnel-shaped "window" out in front of your spacecraft. This happens because photons (those exceedingly tiny packets of light) -- even photons behind you -- appear to come in from the forward direction. In addition, you would notice an extreme Doppler effects , which would cause light waves from stars in front of you to crowd together, making the objects appear blue. Light waves from stars behind you would spread apart and appear red. The faster you go, the more extreme this phenomenon becomes until all visible light from stars in front of the spacecraft and stars to the rear become completely shifted out of the known visible spectrum (the colors humans can see). When these stars move out of your perceptible wavelength, they simply appear to fade to black or vanish against the background.

Of course, if you want to travel faster than a speeding photon, you'll need more than the same rocket technology we've been using for decades. Perhaps pulling on blue tights and a red cape isn't such a far-fetched idea after all.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

what is secret of 369

  The number 3 serves as the only number that equals the sum  of  all preceding numbers (0 + 1 + 2 = 3). Also, when 3 is added to itself, the smallest perfect number ensues (6). And when 3 is squared, the result is the number that completes the single-digit numbers in the decimal system, better known as the number 9 why 369 is universe of key ? Nikola Tesla was obsessed with numbers, but especially 3, 6 and 9. He wanted the world to know the significance of the number 3 6 9, he claimed that these were extremely important numbers, but the question is why? What was that Nikola Tesla wanted the world to understand? How it became Nikola Tesla 3 6 9 theory? To understand that, we must first know about Mathematics. Why it is so different yet the same anywhere in the universe. Maths was and has been the most valued subject of all the time and the most powerful too. Two plus two will always be four everywhere in the universe. Possibly Nikola Tesla knew the power of the numbers 3 ...

Kardashev scale

  The   Kardashev scale   is a method of measuring a  civilization ' s level of technological  advancement based on the amount of energy  it is able to use. The measure was proposed by   Soviet    astronomer   Nikolai    Kardashev    in 1964. The scale is hypothetical , and regards energy consumption on a cosmic  scale. Various extensions of the scale have since been proposed, including a wider range of power levels (types 0, IV through VI) and the use of metrics other than pure power. Categories  The Kardashev scale has three designated categories, these are: A  Type I civilization , also called a planetary civilization , can use and store all of the energy available on its planet.  A  Type II civilization , also called a stellar    civilization , can use and control energy at the scale of its planetary system. A  Type III ...

Anthropic principle

  The   anthropic principle   is the principle that there is a restrictive lower bound on how statistically probable our observations of the universe are, given that we could only exist in the particular type of universe capable of developing and sustaining sentient life.   Proponents of the anthropic principle argue that it explains why this universe has the  age  and the  fundamental physical constants    necessary to accommodate conscious life, since if either had been different, we would not have been around to make observations. Anthropic reasoning is often used to deal with the notion that the universe seems to be  fine tuned . There are many different formulations of the anthropic principle. Philosopher Nick Bostrom  counts them at thirty, but the underlying principles can be divided into "weak" and "strong" forms, depending on the types of cosmological claims they entail. The  weak anthropic principle  ( ...