Attaining speeds faster than light

[Sombrero]

This is what I like about DIYnot... (if you keep the insults and the god bits out!!)... some interesting thoughts..

So what about the photons coming out of a car headlight on a car doing 100mph? how fast is that light? is the speed of the photons relative to the light filament? or the air in front of the car?

 

[ntb]

They are emitted when an electron that has been exited into a higher energy state (e.g via the application of heat or collision with another particle), drops back to a lower energy level or its base state.

They exist until they are absorbed by matter and the energy is released as heat.

Why so interested? Further discussion will be delayed until I'm otherwise unoccupied tomorrow btw.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

If one could travel faster than the speed of light by many folds, I am sure you would be able to go back in time and see your grandmother giving birth to your dad, since light strikes an object and is then reflected out not only just into space but strikes your eyes and you see the image, hence any light that struck your grandmother and bounced off her is still travelling away at speed of light perhaps 50, 60 or even 100 light years away, so if you could travel at million times faster than the speed of light, you could in a few minutes catch up that light that reflected from your nanny giving birth to your dad, and you may see all before your real eyes! and you could also see your own birth!

It is bit like an aeroplane has let off a bomb by accident, and it is free falling by force of gravity, the pilot realises his mistake he is still above Manchester, and so he dives his plane and tries to intercept the bomb before it reaches the ground and rescues people of Manchester from a major disaster.


If I am not mistaken, I used to read things about NDE, and one guy claims that he could see everything he ever did all unfolding in front of him, he is going past planets, he could see things through other things.
I am sure the secret is the light itself, it has far more secrets than we have cracked, like for example we know light is both a wave (electromagnetic wave) and as well as a stream of photons, so sure if it has connection with electromagnetism, then surely it could be manipulated.

I believe the spirit within us, is what it is, that can travel faster than light as it is a non matter thingy, it could possibly travel anywhere in the universe from one corner to the other in a split second, merely by the thought process, like what the hindu maharishis's claim through deep meditation, and you could transport yourself anywhere and see past!

and if we are already doing that ( i .e.) travelled into the past and now we are going back to the future, from where we came into the past, then it is likely we could predict what is to come!

 

[Mikefromlondon]

those Interested in Near death experience (NDE) this article I found extremely interesting, I recommend you to read it all the way, i promise you won't get bored, I first read this about 10 years ago! Sceptics can read it as science fiction article.

http://www.near-death.com/experiences/reincarnation04.html

 

[sooey]

This is what I like about DIYnot... (if you keep the insults and the god bits out!!)... some interesting thoughts..

So what about the photons coming out of a car headlight on a car doing 100mph? how fast is that light? is the speed of the photons relative to the light filament? or the air in front of the car?

It's been proven that the speed of light from a moving source will stay the same. i.e. in your example 100mph + 186,000mph = 186,000 mph. But the wavelength would be shortened slightly, shifting the light slightly towards the blue end of the spectrum.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

If one could travel faster than the speed of light by many folds, I am sure you would be able to go back in time and see your grandmother giving birth to your dad, since light strikes an object and is then reflected out not only just into space but strikes your eyes and you see the image, hence any light that struck your grandmother and bounced off her is still travelling away at speed of light perhaps 50, 60 or even 100 light years away, so if you could travel at million times faster than the speed of light, you could in a few minutes catch up that light that reflected from your nanny giving birth to your dad, and you may see all before your real eyes! and you could also see your own birth!

this holds true if she gave birth in an open field in a day light! if she gave birth in a closed room, with windows curtained, and in artificial light, then you may not see her give birth to your dad!

 

[joe-90]

Never mind Mike, you weirdo.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

This is what I like about DIYnot... (if you keep the insults and the god bits out!!)... some interesting thoughts..

So what about the photons coming out of a car headlight on a car doing 100mph? how fast is that light? is the speed of the photons relative to the light filament? or the air in front of the car?

It's been proven that the speed of light from a moving source will stay the same. i.e. in your example 100mph + 186,000mph = 186,000 mph. But the wavelength would be shortened slightly, shifting the light slightly towards the blue end of the spectrum.

True, the speed of light won't change even if its source was on a very fast moving object, take for instant a gun, whose bullet is shot out at a velocity of 100m/s, and if you fired that bullet from a moving car travelling at 50mph, the bullet will still leave the gun at the same velocity of 100m/s, though the speed of the bullet itself may have gained speed, or in other words it may reach its target a bit quicker, but its speed relative to its source is the same, not relevant to its position from where it was fired from.


So if the sun suddenly started to move closer to earth or the other way around, the time it takes light from the sun is normally around 8 seconds,so as the sun and earth distance starts to get shorter and shorter, the light would take less time to reach the earth but the speed of light has not changed, if the Sun and earth distance was halved, the light from sun would reach us in 4 seconds, though its (light's ) speed has not changed.

Now the above is when the two objects are stationary, relative to each other, but if the sun started to move at half the speed of light towards the earth, what it is trying to do is trying to catch its own emitted light wave, in doing so it is managing to catch 50% of its light as or in other words the wavelength is getting compressed and is therefore 50% of when it was stationary, (wavelength shortens) blue shift as it is known, objects getting closer.

(please right me if I am still wrong)

 

[Space cat]

It's been proven that the speed of light from a moving source will stay the same

Why do we assume that it's the car that's moving? From the driver's point of view, it's the road that's moving.

Now here comes the clever bit: If the driver and a passing pedestrian both measure the speed of the light as it leaves the car, they'll get the same answer.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

Why do we assume that it's the car that's moving? From the driver's point of view, it's the road that's moving.

OK, thats fine, I will write to DVLA, and tell them to give me back my driving licence as it was not me who was drink driving, the road was pi55ed

 

[jeds]

Most people know the rule that it requires an infinite amount of energy to propel an object of mass up to the speed of light. But what a lot forget is that is would also take the same amount of energy to slow to a stop. So aliens dropping in from Andromeda to do a bit of sightseeing on Salisbury Plain have worked out some way of carrying 2x infinite energy. Hang on though, they also need 2x infinite energy to do the return journey so that's 4x infinite energy.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

Anybody can tell me why light does not travel any faster than 186,000miles per second? why can it not go any faster?

I think i know the answer but let us see what you guys can think of as an answer, but i know you guys will not accept my answer!

 

[Space cat]

Light is an electromagnetic wave and, as such, it's governed by Maxwell's laws. Its velocity in a vacuum is determined by a pair of physical constants: the permeability and permittivity of free space. In theory, it will travel faster in a material for which the product of these two constants is smaller than it is for a vacuum. Sadly, no such material has ever been found.

Oddly enough, there are materials, known as diamagnetics, which have a permeability less than that of a vacuum. This suggest that a 'faster-than-light' material might exist. The problem lies with permittivity, which is always greater than that of a vacuum, and it's a pretty fair bet that the increased permittivity of a diamagnetic material will always outweigh its reduced permeability. I don't know whether or not this has ever been proved from first principles. If it hasn't, it's a nice project for a budding theoretical physicist.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

Exactly as I wanted to say, except you mentioned Maxwell, but I would like to use the law of nature, but in a much easier to understand language, more down to earth way, i.e. light is governed by laws of nature, it has to strictly obey its speed limit set by nature, it just cannot stop suddenly or start moving again or go faster or slower except when it has to travel through various mediums, where its properties are modified so it would travel either faster or slower.
But thanks for being more technical.

 

[jeds]

Light doesn't travel slower when it passes through mediums. It always travels at the same speed. All that happens is it takes a longer route so it appears to slow.