speed of light ?

[Gelgoog]

If faster than light travel is impossible then how was it that the universe spread so much faster during the big bang than the speed of light?

[Orko]

If faster than light travel is impossible then how was it that the universe spread so much faster during the big bang than the speed of light?

I expands much faster but doesn't move much faster.

[Gordon Freynman]

If faster than light travel is impossible then how was it that the universe spread so much faster during the big bang than the speed of light?

Space itself doesn't have mass or any information associated with it, so it can expand however fast it wants.

[Elfdude]

If faster than light travel is impossible then how was it that the universe spread so much faster during the big bang than the speed of light?

Space, time and gravity are artifacts of this law IMO.

Basically speed is a local law not a relative law. You yourself can never exceed the speed of light but relative to the universe itself you can. This loophole is apparent in that you can reshape space to make it so that you're not actually breaking the speed of light. Speed = distance/time. If you change your distance or your time you can accomplish speed that breaks the speed of light relative to the universe.

There's two possible methods to do this without rewriting the basic laws, use wormholes to do it which requires negative matter and negative energy to establish a link between two spots that is shorter than the natural pathway, or use negative energy to create an artificial antigravity that expands space behind you then using positive energy to create gravity to compress space in front of you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_Alcubierre - Created the mathematical equation for FTL travel (the second possibility I described)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than-light - More in depth information.

I digress, basically the Universe did it because it reshaped the space in between particles rather than actually exceeding the speed of light by moving the particles.

[Gordon Freynman]

Space, time and gravity are artifacts of this law IMO.

Gravity actually abides by the cosmic speed limit. Just a small correction.

[Elfdude]

Gravity actually abides by the cosmic speed limit. Just a small correction.

Actually, I wasn't saying that gravity would violate the speed of light.

When I say they're artifacts of the law I mean gravity happens because of the speed of light, thus of course it wouldn't violate it. However this is kind of a personal physical theory of mine and I'm not sure if it's true.

[MathiasOfAthens]

Nothing is impossible, one day prob when we are all dead, we will be able to have FTL drives.

If you believe aliens exist and you consider the sighting of strange ships and think some of those sightings must be real than its logically to assume that someone out there has developed FTL and has used it to visit us.

Its like saying "no one can travel at 140 km a minute but with a car they can.

[Poach]

Mathias: the most common theory around FTL travel isn't to travel faster than light, but to bend space to reduce your overall distance.

As for the Universe expanding, it's been mentioned already: Space has no mass or information, allowing it to expand however quickly it chooses.

[Ex Tenebris Lux]

Mathias: the most common theory around FTL travel isn't to travel faster than light, but to bend space to reduce your overall distance..

One name for you: Miguel Alcubierre.

I think you'll enjoy his ideas.

[MathiasOfAthens]

I understand all of that Poach, I read the earlier posts too sorry for the misunderstanding with whatever I said.

[Mr. Crow]

i worked in a FTL drive, it worked,

research showed
1.- aparently ligth speed is variable, so you can go faster than C without moving faster than ligth, thus preserving relativity and causality whithin a specific frame of reference, but moving really fast with respect to all others.
2.-low energy ligth waves like radio, well actually waves with even less energy can be used create a ligth buble around the drive, which then is self propelled, theorically ther is infinite energy whithin evry one of those particles, practically you can only harves a little.

unfortunatly i can give no more details because the drive is a company secret.

[Gordon Freynman]

i worked in a FTL drive, it worked,

research showed
1.- aparently ligth speed is variable, so you can go faster than C without moving faster than ligth, thus preserving relativity and causality whithin a specific frame of reference, but moving really fast with respect to all others.
2.-low energy ligth waves like radio, well actually waves with even less energy can be used create a ligth buble around the drive, which then is self propelled, theorically ther is infinite energy whithin evry one of those particles, practically you can only harves a little.

unfortunatly i can give no more details because the drive is a company secret.

I eagerly await the findings of you/your company's research in a scientific journal, followed by your Nobel prize in physics and infinite fame and fortune.

[Nimthill]

i worked in a FTL drive, it worked,

research showed
1.- aparently ligth speed is variable, so you can go faster than C without moving faster than ligth, thus preserving relativity and causality whithin a specific frame of reference, but moving really fast with respect to all others.
2.-low energy ligth waves like radio, well actually waves with even less energy can be used create a ligth buble around the drive, which then is self propelled, theorically ther is infinite energy whithin evry one of those particles, practically you can only harves a little.

unfortunatly i can give no more details because the drive is a company secret.

I'd like to point out that while the speed of light is variable, c is not.

C is the speed of light in a vacuum, which is constant. The speed of light is decreased by making it pass through any form of matter (gas, liquid, solid) and/or by lowering the temperature of that medium.

There was an interesting paper a few months back here that claimed scientists had managed to make light stand still by cooling the medium to the absolute zero. That was pretty cool.

EDIT: here is the link to that article: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...ighlight=Light

[Gelgoog]

i worked in a FTL drive, it worked,

research showed
1.- aparently ligth speed is variable, so you can go faster than C without moving faster than ligth, thus preserving relativity and causality whithin a specific frame of reference, but moving really fast with respect to all others.
2.-low energy ligth waves like radio, well actually waves with even less energy can be used create a ligth buble around the drive, which then is self propelled, theorically ther is infinite energy whithin evry one of those particles, practically you can only harves a little.

unfortunatly i can give no more details because the drive is a company secret.

Awesome!

btw- My company Jackass Industries is working on a functioning light saber. We have a working prototype, but that is all I can say as its a company secret. As colleagues of such great scientific achievement let me send a copy of my super secret "mozilla software" which is so ground breaking that it has innovations such as spell check built in

[Anduril248]

if we look at the E=mc^2 couldn't we get to the possibilty of surpassing the c and nearing the point where we start converting mass to energy?

[Gordon Freynman]

if we look at the E=mc^2 couldn't we get to the possibilty of surpassing the c and nearing the point where we start converting mass to energy?

Energy cannot travel FTL either. What happens when an object approaches the speed of light is it gains more and more mass and requires more and more energy to accelerate, and as it gets infinitely close to the speed of light it will gain infinite amounts of mass and as such will require an infinite amount of energy to accelerate.

[Mr. Crow]

Energy cannot travel FTL either. What happens when an object approaches the speed of light is it gains more and more mass and requires more and more energy to accelerate, and as it gets infinitely close to the speed of light it will gain infinite amounts of mass and as such will require an infinite amount of energy to accelerate.

exactly but then again c is variable

I'd like to point out that while the speed of light is variable, c is not.

C is the speed of light in a vacuum, which is constant. The speed of light is decreased by making it pass through any form of matter (gas, liquid, solid) and/or by lowering the temperature of that medium..

1.- theoretically yes, practically there is not any such thing as vacuum
light speed for medium A is not constant.
2.-of course, in fact I thank you for doing that search for me

Quote:
Originally Posted by master412160
Light does not escape a black hole, it gets sucked right in it.

Light isn't sucked into a blackhole but rather passed through a gravity well so deep it takes it a very long time to escape.

There was an interesting paper a few months back here that claimed scientists had managed to make light stand still by cooling the medium to the absolute zero. That was pretty cool.

EDIT: here is the link to that article: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...ighlight=Light

Note: you can not reach absolute 0, but you can get very close to it. still the point holds

jeje consider that a black hole is much denser and cooler than the Bosee-Einstein condensate.

[webMaster412160]

Light does not escape a black hole, it gets sucked right in it.

[Elfdude]

Light does not escape a black hole, it gets sucked right in it.

Light isn't sucked into a blackhole but rather passed through a gravity well so deep it takes it a very long time to escape.

[Ex Tenebris Lux]

If faster than light travel is impossible then how was it that the universe spread so much faster during the big bang than the speed of light?

the speed of light has not always been the same.