Is faster-than-light travel possible? - Science Forum

Visited your "explanation" and enjoyed it immensely. That doesn't imply agreement but you have done a splended job of laying out your thoughts. One point you made I'd like to comment on, please:

"Notice that we've arranged for Dave to receive the signal from Carol as he's flying past Alice. Notice too that he receives it before Alice has sent her first signal! This means that Alice can transmit information into her own past by way of Bob, Carol, Dave, some spaceships, and two pairs of ansibles. And that's why faster than light travel or communication, special relativity and causality cannot coexist."

this quote from your site seems to imply that time travel to the past is impossible. I agree with that but find it curious that the impossiblity of time travel to the past is used to invalidate the possibility of "faster than light" physics. I'll have to go over Bell's theorem again to add more to this but presently, it seems that we keep missing the idea that the speed of light in a medium is affected by the medium. Wouldn't it then also be true that another "framework" would also have a different speed of light and might even be considered a different dimension, something implied by Quantum theory (which also implies an instantaneous or faster than light in this framework speed for collapse of an electron from one shell to another, for example). Such different frameworks might not be capable of communication as we are presently aware of with our physics and might show up to us in this framework as spots of light at varying distances and timelines.

The very implications of a limitation on the speed of light in a medium (vacuum is the usual medium noted) in a relativistic framework opens a depth of correlaries that move into a whole new physical set of laws. Fun to think about.

Moderator Joined: Jun 21, 2005 Posts: 264

Faster than light travel is possible. It happens to matter when it moves above 86 percent of light speed. It is achieved because time slows down as you speed up. So in a shorter period of time by your clock you could travel farther than light would in its own given time.

I believe millions of years from now we will develop faster than light space ships to take us quickly through our galaxy The Milky Way.

Novice Joined: Jan 14, 2006 Posts: 6

Moderator Joined: Jun 21, 2005 Posts: 264

Right. By your new map you are traveling lower than light speed. But if you compare light's time to time for you which could be going much slower at high speeds you will exeed the speed of light in its time frame of travel. Both are correct. Razz

Apprentice Joined: Apr 25, 2006 Posts: 12

Einstein said that faster than light travel is impossible, I don't know enough about the topic to make any other comments unfortunatly.

Moderator Joined: Jun 21, 2005 Posts: 264

Light travels in its own time. It will go 186000 miles in its one second. But when matter speeds up time for matter will slow down. So since time for matter is going much slower than for light matter can go much farther in the extra time. Thus the prediction of matter moving faster than light by comparison. Once you reach 86% light speed by your elapsed time you have reached light speed and could go even faster by moving so fast in your slower time.

Apprentice Joined: Apr 25, 2006 Posts: 12

I have heard references to that actually, makes perfect sense to me, if it works in reality or not is beyond me, but the logic of it seems basic enough.
Just to verify my understanding:
You would be traveling at a normal speed from the perception of everybody else, but time is slowed so you travel "faster" than the photon rays in comparison?

Moderator Joined: Jun 21, 2005 Posts: 264

Well if your clock is going twice as slow as light's you are traveling almost twice as far as light is. The exact number I don't know. I think to travel twice as far as light in your own time you need to be moving at 96% light's speed.

New User Joined: Jan 25, 2007 Posts: 2

I am not a scientist, so i will not delve into the physical properties of light deeply, but from what I've learnt:

Light speed = speed of light travelling.

now. Imagine a situation of one travelling on a light-speed+vehicle to a star with a populated planet on it. you are 30 light years away, so what you see happening on the planet is 30 years delayed. as you speed up, the scene speeds up, and in the light rushing at you, one sees the world evolve rapidly. children growing, breakthroughs being made, and such. If one is to look backwards, the home planet starts to stop, and reverse back in time, since one looks at the light that has left the planet years ago.

when one reaches and passes light speed, all the electronics onboard the vehicle would stop functioning, as the electrical signals travel just a bit slower than light speed, and are not able to flow through the wires. If one is to look back, one would see nothing. Ahead, one would see immensely bright coming form everywhere. It is similar to walking in the rain with wind in your face. If one walks forward, into the wind, more rain-drops fall on them than if they would stand. one's back, tho is almost dry, as the rain doesn't get around there.

Therefore, even thought it might be technically possible to accelerate faster then the speed of light, it would not work in practice, as no machinery could be programmed to work, and a human would not possibly steer the vehicle on the right course.

Moderator Joined: Jun 21, 2005 Posts: 264

Light has its own clock and it is faster than matter's. If you are traveling fast enough that your "matter" clock is running 10 times slower than light's clock then in principle you could travel nearly 10 times further than light could in any given interval.

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