Speed of light, Is it possible to surpass that

Listen to this article

INTRODUCTION TO SPEED OF LIGHT

In early 17th century, Johannes Kepler believed that the speed of light was tends to infinite, because the space is empty and nothing to obstacle it. In 1676 Danish astronomer Ole Rømer calculated that, speed of light is not infinite, instead it has finite value. Two years later, using the data gathered by Rømer, Dutch mathematician Christiaan Huygens calculate the speed of light, after that he became the first person who determine the actual speed of light. According to the Huygens, the speed of light is 131,000 miles per second (211,000 kilometers per second) which is 29% slower than the actual speed of light in vacuum, about 186,282 miles per second (299,792 km per second). Though the value is not accurate, but it showcased that light travels at an incredible speed.

COMMON CONCEPT AND IDEAS

Alcubierre Drive: The main principle of this idea is creating an energy-density field lower than that of a vacuum (negative mass) to make the space time in front of the ship contract and the space behind the ship expand. In theory, this would create a bubble in space time around the craft, which allows it to stay still while the space around it moves.
Tachyons: A tachyon is a hypothetical particle that travels faster than light. Physicists believe that, nothing having mass moves faster than the speed of light (3×10⁸ m/s). If such particles exist they able to transmit the signal faster than light. Tachyons would exhibit the unusual property such as, with increasing speed, the energy will decrease, and would require infinite amount of energy to slow to the speed of light.
Wormholes: The concept wormholes proposed that to travel faster than the speed of light. In this concept wormhole connects two difference space time (Universes) in cosmos. As a result, the distance is shorter than the normal distance between two points in space time. So, in this concept we don’t need to achieve the speed of light, rather we need to find wormhole.

CHALLENGES TO TRAVEL SPEED OF LIGHT

Required Infinite Amount of Energy: From Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity we get a famous equation E=mc². It states that the energy(E) is equal to the mass(m) times speed of light squared(c²). In the simplified E=mc² doesn’t includes the term for the velocity of particle, so it doesn’t say anything about speed of travel. The equation in relativity that include velocity shown in fig. In the figure, we can see that a term √1-(v/c)² is added to equation. Where “v” is the velocity of the particle. From this equation, when v gets close to the value of c, the value of the denominator tends to zero. So, the value of the energy is goes to infinity. So, there is no way in theory of special relativity to get v = c, because that would require infinite amount of energy.
Space travel: The speed of light is still very slow for travel through space. We know that speed of light is the universal constant, nothing can be travel faster than the speed of light, but still this speed is considered very slow for traveling through the space. Let’s take an example, suppose we found a planet which is habitable to sustain the human life in our nearest galaxy “Andromeda”. So, as we know that the Andromeda is near about 2.5 million light-years far away from Earth, that means if we can able to make a space ship which can travel at a speed of light, still it takes more than 2.5 million light years to achieving that distance. That means it is impossible to reach that distance in reality.

CONSEQUENCES FOR TRAVELING SPEED OF LIGHT

Increasing Mass Exponentially: From Einstein’s equation E=mc², according to this equation, mass(m) and energy(E) are the same physical entity and changed with each other. That means if an object moves faster, then it obtained greater mass. If an object moves 10% of the speed of light, then it’s mass only be 0.5% more than its actual mass. But if it travels 90% of the speed of light, it’s mass will be doubled. As an object approaches to the speed of light, the mass will increase exponentially. So, if an object can achieve the speed of light(3×10⁸m/s) then its mass becomes infinite. As the mass and energy are the same entity, the energy required to drive the object is also infinite. For this reason, any object can’t travel as fast or faster than the speed of light.
Time Dilation: Time dilation is the difference in elapsed time as measured by two clocks, either because of a relative velocity between them, or a difference in gravitational potential between their locations. Time slow down for an object travel at higher speed.
For an example, I you travel at 90 percent of speed of light you will notice if your watch advances only 30 minutes, while more than 1 hour would pass for an observer in Earth. If you travel at 99.99% the speed of light, 1 second would be around 19.6 hours relative to Earth. So, 1 minute would be 1176 hours, after 1 hour of travel, 70560 hours on Earth. After passing 24 hours at a 99.99% speed of light, on Earth it would be passes more than 193 years.
Length Contraction: Length contraction is a phenomenon which is occurs when an object’s length is shorter than its original length, when measured object are in the rest frame. This phenomenon also known as Lorentz contraction or Lorentz–FitzGerald contraction. This amount of contraction depends on the object’s speed, and it’s only noticeable when the object is travels at a fraction of the speed of light. Length contraction is a widely accepted consequence of theory of special relativity. The idea of length contraction postulated by the theoretical physicist George FitzGerald in 1889 and by the theorist Hendrik Lorentz in 1892.

CONCLUSIONS

At the end of this blog, we can come to this conclusion that, though there are many potential possibilities to travel faster than light, still it impossible to achieve that speed. In above article we see that from Einstein’s special theory of relativity, we need to generate infinite amount of energy to drive a space ship at a speed of light which is impossible. Also, there are many different theories suggest that the possibilities of travel faster than the light, but execute of those concepts is still way harder. Because we haven’t seen those particles in reality and have enough information about that. So at this point of time we aren’t able to reach or surpass the speed of light, but there is high possibility that in future we are able to reach that speed.

You might be interested in reading in post

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Spread the love

Speed of light, Is it possible to surpass that – Yes or No??