If you travel faster than light, what happens?

[iholla]

There have been a lot of theories about what you would see or experience if you travelled faster than light.

To put this in perspective, suppose you are walkng towards the store which is say, 100m away from you...but in this case, you are moving at a speed faster than that of light. What do you think would happen?

Any theories?

ps: I am ofcourse assuming that you can stop with as much ease as you can travel faster than light.

[naresh]

is that possible or its only hypothetical question ?

[Nick2007]

Well if you are driving in a car faster than the speed of light, and you turn on the headlights, then the light will probably 'follow' you behind. The faster you go, the faster the line of light behind you. Kinda like a jet going faster than the speed of sound, the faster it is, the longer you'll have to wait for the sound to catch up. The faster a car drives after the speed of light, the longer the 'stream' of light behind it. That's kinda my theory.

For the person walking, I believe that you'll see just a big blur, if you've ever taken a video camera, pressed the 'Record' button and swung it around as fast as you could, then you played your recorded tape, You just saw a big blur of stuff. This is probably what you'll experience. I'll also think that you'll experience some dizziness and maybe you'll go unconscious, probably because of the G forces involved when 'running or walking' at the speed of light. If the store is 100m away, you'll probably get there in a jiffy.

[Darasen]

Objects can not travel faster than light. As speed increases mass increases thus the energy needed to accelerate increases. So to accelerate to light speed would require an infinite amount of energy.

Supposing you were traveling near the speed of light there would be the issue of time dilation. While from your reference you would make it to store quickly from the rest of the worlds reference you may not get there before closing.

As far as headlights at near light speed they would function normally.

[Loneua Technologies]

You physically cannot travel faster then light. You would get killed by the G force. There is so much pressure on your body traveling at 600MPH imagine 671,080,888MPH (The speed of light). Not ever going to happen. But you would pretty much disintegrate instantaneously.

[mygorillanet]

Objects can not travel faster than light. As speed increases mass increases thus the energy needed to accelerate increases. So to accelerate to light speed would require an infinite amount of energy.

I disagree with the issue of objects not being able to travel faster than light, I agree with the increase of mass with speed, I disagree with the infinite amounts of energy required to reach these speeds.

Simple Physics lesson
-----------------------

Mass is the quantity of matter in a body regardless of its volume or of any forces acting on it. The inertial mass of a body is a measure of the body's resistance to acceleration by some external force. Inertial mass does not hinder acceleration of a body already in motion but hinders deceleration.

Gravitational mass however, increases with speed but its effect on acceleration can only be appreciated at very very high speeds. Do you remember Einstein's special theory of relativity that states, "mass is not strictly constant but increases with the speed", well the increase in mass can be calculated using the formula;

M = m[square root of ](1 - ( S[squared] / L[squared] ) )

where M = increase in mass, m = original mass at rest, S = speed at which we are travelling and L = speed of light.

However, if we want to travel faster than light, our speed should be greater than that of light. In this case, lets choose to travel at the speed of light. Our formula then gives;

M = m[square root of ](1 - ( L[squared] / L[squared] ) )

it thus follows that;

M = m[square root of ](1 - 1 )

which means, as long as your speed equals that of light, there is no increase in mass. Your speed has to be alot higher than that fo light in order for there to be any effect of mass on your speed.

there would be the issue of time dilation

I might be wrong, but what does time have to do with speed?

[Loneua Technologies]

It has everything to do with speed,

In order to get to the speed of Light you need to Accelerate right?

If i am not mistaken then Acceleration is Average Velocity(Speed) over time.

He is saying that you would be traveling at such a speed that the world

would appear to be in slow motion "Time Dilation".

[iholla]

You physically cannot travel faster then light. You would get killed by the G force. There is so much pressure on your body traveling at 600MPH imagine 671,080,888MPH (The speed of light). Not ever going to happen. But you would pretty much disintegrate instantaneously.

Since the constant is speed of light in a vacuum, lets eliminate the effects of g by assuming a long enough vacuum tunnel, no turns in it and you in a weightless state.

To enable you to travel at light speed in this tunnel, we eliminate most of the friction by using magnetic levitation.

No g effect, no friction. just you in your vehicle against light. what happens?

I am guessing, darkness in pitch black is what happens.

[mygorillanet]

It has everything to do with speed,
In order to get to the speed of Light you need to Accelerate right? If i am not mistaken then Acceleration is Average Velocity(Speed) over time.He is saying that you would be traveling at such a speed that the world would appear to be in slow motion "Time Dilation".

I am aware that speed is distance covered over time. What I meant was the time 'dilation thingy'

If I am so fast for light, then At the beginning of my acceleration, I thnk things would get blurred and I wouldn't be able to make out any objects by which to have the illusion of slow motion.

I think, the blur would soon turn to a white colour and once I am way faster than light, the white might turn to black.

One can visually experience a supersonic breakthrough, what one visually experiences once hitting the 'light barrier' I can only wonder.

[Franc0]

its possible to whoever said it couldnt, some german ressearches a few months back made an atom from point A to B traveling faster than light..

what did they see? just at atom from point A disapearing, and appearing in point B..

so answernig your question.. traveling at speed of light.. you will disappear in point A and appear in point B instantly