Attaining speeds faster than light

Joined
6 Aug 2011
Messages
3,191
Reaction score
192
Location
London
Country
United Kingdom
I had been thinking how to get this achieved using basic components that you could buy from many electronic stores, some items may already be in your shed.

Speed of light is approx 186,000 miles per second.

This means if light was able to travel at that speed then it would take light 1 second to cover a distance of 186,000 miles.

Another way to put this is to imagine if light was able to travel in a gigantic round about, with a circumference of 186,000miles, then it would take light 1 second to go around once every second, in a circular path

Please refrain from telling me that light can only travel in a straight light, I know it does, I am not as dumb as you think.

Now, if we convert that imaginary gigantic circle, whose circumference is 186,000miles, that means its diameter would be circumference divided by pie, or 186,000 / 3.14 which gives you approx 59,236 miles diameter, or a radius half of this which is 29,618 miles.

Now, this a still a huge length as far as my experiment is concerned, so we must reduce this by a factor of at least 1000, so we get 29,618/1000 which gives you 29.618 miles.

Now what we need is a small laser pointer pen, finely balanced on a high speed motor shaft, capable of rotating at least just over 60,000rpm, which is not an impossible thing given our modern day technology.

Mount this laser on the motor shaft (similar to laser leveller used in building construction) and project the beam on a surface at a distance of just over 29.618 miles away, or say at 30 miles,

Most lasers will have no problem covering this distance.

Once the beam is projecting on to a special screen mounted at 30 miles away from the centre of the motor shaft, with a laser pen switched on, we should be able to observe the beam as well as use very high speed laser light detectors, then switch on this motor, which could be a pneumatically driven from a tank of compressed air, to attain such high revs per second, i.e. 1000 rps or 60,00rpm, thus we are scribing an arc on our special screen which is travelling at a speed faster than the speed of light,

Now the only question is whether we will be able to see this arc at all as it is travelling faster than the speed of light! our eyes might not be able to detect it, or even the fastest detectors may not detect it, but in reality the laser beam is scribing an arc at a speed faster than that of light itself.

(Please also stop telling me that at 60,000rpm the laser pen will fly off due to centripetal or centrifugal forces, assuming we take care of its mounts and drive and enclose it in a very solid steel structure balanced precisely to rotate at 60,000rpm to 70,000 RPM, most car turbos will handle 100,000rpm yet they are made of no special materials, turbine blades in aeroplane engines is another example that can rotate at 100K rpm with blades as huge as 10 foot diameter!

If you guys are more scientific, tell me then why it wouldn't scribe an arc at 30 miles away on a screen at a speed faster than that of light itself?

Do you think the centripetal force itself may eject light (photons) out of the laser pen and help it travel even faster than it normally does?
 
Sponsored Links
Nope, it is 186,000 miles per second, or 300,000 km per second, exact speed depends on medium through which it travels, probably slightly slower in air,than in vacuum,

however I just tried googling for exact speed of light and guess what i came across

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light#Faster-than-light_observations_and_experiments


extract from above link:
Faster-than-light observations and experiments[edit]

Main article: Faster-than-light
Further information: Superluminal motion
There are situations in which it may seem that matter, energy, or information travels at speeds greater than c, but they do not. For example, as is discussed in the propagation of light in a medium section below, many wave velocities can exceed c. For example, the phase velocity of X-rays through most glasses can routinely exceed c,[36] but phase velocity does not determine the velocity at which waves convey information.[37]
If a laser beam is swept quickly across a distant object, the spot of light can move faster than c, although the initial movement of the spot is delayed because of the time it takes light to get to the distant object at the speed c. However, the only physical entities that are moving are the laser and its emitted light, which travels at the speed c from the laser to the various positions of the spot. Similarly, a shadow projected onto a distant object can be made to move faster than c, after a delay in time.[38] In neither case does any matter, energy, or information travel faster than light.[39]
 
The light from the laser will only be travelling at the speed of light and the fact that it is on a rotating shaft doesn't make any difference.
Simplest way of looking at it is to think of it in reverse. We are standing on a spinning object, now look at a star in the western sky and then move your eyes so that you are looking at a star in the eastern sky. Your point of focus may travel hundreds of light years in a second but all the light is still moving at the same speed. It's the same as your "experiment" the only thing going faster than light is the point at which the laser hits the screen , nothing physical is going above the speed of light.
 
Sponsored Links
Spinning around with a hose pipe won't make the water come out faster. Same with a laser and light.
 
Mikefromlondon. You need to update your mindset from Newtonian/Classic Physics and embrace Quantum Physics, and maybe you will see the error of your thinking. Newtonian Physics principles do not hold in your example.
I guess your Physics is stuck in the 1960's and before.
Or may be you are just taking the P155.
 
The light from the laser will only be travelling at the speed of light and the fact that it is on a rotating shaft doesn't make any difference.
Simplest way of looking at it is to think of it in reverse. We are standing on a spinning object, now look at a star in the western sky and then move your eyes so that you are looking at a star in the eastern sky. Your point of focus may travel hundreds of light years in a second but all the light is still moving at the same speed. It's the same as your "experiment" the only thing going faster than light is the point at which the laser hits the screen , nothing physical is going above the speed of light.


Your example uses two different stars already positioned in West and East hemisphere, so far apart, of course light from both of those stars is travelling towards an observer at the speed as light normally travels at.

Only you are moving your eyes or your head, as you observe one star in East and then the other in West. that would not effect the speed of light.

In my example I am trying to move a single spot of laser light projected at a screen 30 or more miles away, so that an observer could watch that spot move faster than the actual speed of light when it is swept across using a high speed rotation of the laser beam mounted on a rotating shaft spinning at over 60,000RPM.

Whether one will actually be able to see the laser spot moving across the screen even if he was standing close to the screen itself, whilst the beam is projected from a distance, in theory the beam should be scribing an arc or (spot sweeping across it) in a flash it would disappear as the velocity of that spot would be faster than the speed of light, so before the light can actually bounce of that screen as it strikes, it is gone, it disappears, as its duration of strike would be shorter than the wavelength of the light, so one would not see anything, though it is actually striking that screen and sweeping across it at faster than the speed of light.


Hey but its only a thought! who said anything could travel faster than light! a thought is fastest though! bonkers!
 
Mikefromlondon. You need to update your mindset from Newtonian/Classic Physics and embrace Quantum Physics, and maybe you will see the error of your thinking. Newtonian Physics principles do not hold in your example.
I guess your Physics is stuck in the 1960's and before.
Or may be you are just taking the P155.


Why would I subject myself to unnecessary torture? and get no where? and end up in a wheel chair! :mad: :LOL: :LOL:
 
Why would I subject myself to unnecessary torture? and get no where? and end up in a wheel chair! :mad: :LOL: :LOL:

No Torture No Gain.
If you continue with your present thought process you will also 'Get Nowhere'
Quantum Mechanics is they way forward for you.
 
something that has completely gone over your head.


Your example uses two different stars already positioned in West and East hemisphere, so far apart, of course light from both of those stars is travelling towards an observer at the speed as light normally travels at.

Only you are moving your eyes or your head, as you observe one star in East and then the other in West. that would not effect the speed of light.

In my example I am trying to move a single spot of laser light projected at a screen 30 or more miles away, so that an observer could watch that spot move faster than the actual speed of light when it is swept across using a high speed rotation of the laser beam mounted on a rotating shaft spinning at over
It's the point of focus moving faster than the speed of light not the actual light . To give you another example, imagine you are standing in a large circular room similar to your screen thing. Now imagine that you have a machine gun which you fire while being spun round. You would see a series of bullet holes as each bullet hits the wall, spin fast enough and the point of impact would exceed the velocity of the bullets. The same thing will happen to your light, each photon will only travel at the speed of light but the point of impact on the screen will exceed that speed . It isn't really difficult to understand.
 
yup I fully understand your analogy, thanks for explaining, so what is your conclusion about speed of light ? can anything travel faster than it? if not then please could you possibly explain why not? :p
 
It's the point of focus moving faster than the speed of light not the actual light

So you do agree there are things that can travel faster than the speed of light, as in your above statement, the point of focus indeed travels faster than the speed of light, my original question was can we attain speeds faster than light. so I take it we both agree some things can travel faster than the speed of light, that wasn't difficult to see! :cool:

However, you could add, that a point of focus is not a physical particle, so we could then confirm that no physical particle can travel faster than speed of light.
 
It's the point of focus moving faster than the speed of light not the actual light

So you do agree there are things that can travel faster than the speed of light, as in your above statement, the point of focus indeed travels faster than the speed of light, my original question was can we attain speeds faster than light. so I take it we both agree some things can travel faster than the speed of light, that wasn't difficult to see! :cool:

However, you could add, that a point of focus is not a physical particle, so we could then confirm that no physical particle can travel faster than speed of light.

The faster you travel the greater the gaps in the photon stream nowt to do with light speed.
 
Sponsored Links

Similar threads

J
Replies
26
Views
2K
Bodgeit and scarper ltd
B
Back
Top