Tuesday 7 February 2012

"The Universe's Speed Limit"

Einstein once referred to the speed of light as "the universe's speed limit," this is because in order for E=MC^2, and a lot of other theories to hold true, light must remain the fastest entity in existence.

The Speed of Light is 186 282 miles per second! Photons, or the basic unit of light, have no mass/ weight because they do not interact with the Higgs field (as other particles with mass do). Therefore, light does not have a "speed limit." Basically, the speed of light is an infinite speed, nothing can travel faster, because objects with mass require energy to move, and the faster you get, the more energy is required. In order to travel at the speed of light, an infinite amount of energy would be needed. We do not even have enough energy in our universe to propel one little electron to the speed of light.

The Meaninglessness of Time: At the speed of light, the concept of time is completely meaningless. Everything appears instantaneous. To us, light from something 10,000 light years away would take 10000 years for us to see, but if we were actually travelling at that speed, the journey would be non-existent. It would seem that you had just left and you were already there. The speed of light is only finite from the point of view of the person outside. If we could move at the speed of light, we could go anywhere, no matter how far, in 0 seconds!

The Speed of Gravity: Technically, the speed of gravity is the same as the speed of light (because of the universal speed limit). If the sun were to suddenly disappear, the earth would continue to orbit for 8 minutes before realizing the sun was gone and leaving its axis. Likewise, if the sun were to disappear, we would still see sunlight for 8 minutes, since light from the sun takes 8 minutes to get to earth.

What if something could go faster than the speed of light? Theoretically, this should never happen, but if, somehow something was able to travel faster than light itself, it would then be the fastest entity in the universe, and would be able to time travel!

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