Why is it Impossible to Travel Faster then the Speed of Light?

Why is it impossible to travel faster then the speed of light? Well, I have learned that its because light is mass-less so it doesn't "weigh" anything, thus it requires no energy to accelerate to the speed of light. An object with mass is impossible to bring up to the speed of light because it would require an infinite amount of energy. But why is it impossible to have less then zero mass? Mass comes from somewhere, and has been thought to perhaps come from the higgs boson particle. What if, just like matter, the higgs has a counter part, anti-higgs. Wouldn't it has a negative mass? Now, if it came in contact with its counter part, they would destroy each other, but the higgs Boson particle is a particle, so can't it be removed? If you remove it, and then embed anti-higgs, wouldn't it have a negative mass? If it did we would be able to accelerate it to faster then the speed of light?
It might just be my lack of knowledge that makes me jump to that conclusion, so I was just wondering if anybody knows why this is impossible.

It's not, and technically you're doing it right now just by existing.

The speed of light is the fastest measurable unit of speed according to time/distance however just by existing in this material dimension you are living faster than the speed of light, you're living at the speed of time, which is insanely fast on contrary to what you might believe, your existing at a infinite fraction of a second, think about that.

reply to post by paranoiaFTW


because you can't see where your going.
I'm sorry, I just had to.
In reality, I have no Idea why. The only reason I that I have to believe that it isn't is possible is because that is what I am taught.
Do I believe that?
I was once taught that you can't take 2 away from 1.

"To Infinity and Beyond" - Buzz Lightyear

reply to post by Revolution-2012


I thought about it.. it's rubbish. Whats the velocity of the speed of time compared to the speed of light? Sure the light travels through the medium of time.. but I can't see why that would make something just existing move faster in a physical sense than light even if it's moving through time. We are Humans.. we are Not tachyons.

Tachyons are believed (if they exist) to move faster than the speed of light.

I will quote - itotd.com...
There is more to this article to read but I'll give the good bits.

"Tachyons
Tracking the elusive faster-than-light particle

As an amateur theoretical physicist, I know all about the principle that the speed of light is the ultimate speed limit in the universe. I’ll be the first to admit that it’s difficult to wrap my brain around this concept, but I accept that it’s true. Light not only travels really, really fast, it also travels at a constant speed, irrespective of the relative speed of an observer. Furthermore, any bit of matter that is in motion increases in mass as its speed increases, approaching infinite mass as it approaches the speed of light (and requiring, in theory, infinite energy to accelerate it to that speed). Taken together, this information rather strongly suggests that nothing can be made to travel faster than light. The details of the math and physics don’t fully make sense to me, even after reading the works of Einstein and several modern physicists. But then, these folks are professionals in the field whereas I am not; if they say that their long years of research lead them to conclude unhesitatingly that nothing can move faster than light, who am I to disagree?"

"But in 1962, a group of physicists made the provocative observation that Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity does not actually prohibit matter from traveling faster than light, only from being accelerated to faster-than-light speeds. This may seem like an irrelevant distinction—and perhaps it is. But suppose there were a particle that came into existence already traveling faster than light. Because it did not have to be accelerated in order to reach that speed, it does not violate Special Relativity. Physicist Gerald Feinberg gave this hypothetical particle the name tachyon in 1967, from a Greek word meaning “speedy.” Later, the term tardyon was coined in order to identify ordinary, slower-than-light particles; these are also sometimes known as bradyons.

"The tachyon, if it existed, would have a number of fascinating properties. Unlike ordinary particles, it would have to decrease in mass as it went faster, meaning that the speed of light—at which its mass would be infinite—would be just below its slowest possible speed. Likewise, adding energy to the tachyon would slow it down, rather than speed it up; to slow it all the way down to the speed of light would require infinite energy. For a long time, physicists believed that a tachyon’s mass would have to be an imaginary number—a number with a factor that’s the square root of –1—though more recent formulations of tachyon theory suggest that such a particle could have a real mass. Most intriguingly, a tachyon, if it is to adhere to the principle of relativity, would actually be able to travel backward in time—seemingly making all sorts of trouble for the notion of causality"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So if everything gains mass when traveling at the speed of light, and we are traveling faster than light (through time) as you say, then we better all go on a diet cus I think a few of us are getting ready to blow!

(Grin :-) )

The other thing of course would be if Einstein was wrong altogether- Oh well wouldn't be the first time relativity was found to be incorrect.

[edit on 13-12-2009 by JohnPhoenix]

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


How do we know the universe wasn't created going faster then the speed of light, and that right now, we are going faster then the speed of light?

reply to post by paranoiaFTW


Here is my best guess. being that the universe is expanding faster than the speed of light and it takes the light from the sun 8 minutes to reach us, if we (our universe) were created at the speed of light then at that rate of expansion the light from the sun would never reach us. Therefore we must not have been created traveling at or faster than the speed of light.

Sound does not weigh anything and we can travel faster than that.Not sure how scientific that is but its my observation.Furthermore if there was a craft that could travel at the speed of light and was big enough to walk from the rear of the ship to the front then by walking from the rear of the ship to the front that person would be traveling faster than the speed of light.

Originally posted by tarifa37
Sound does not weigh anything and we can travel faster than that.Not sure how scientific that is but its my observation.Furthermore if there was a craft that could travel at the speed of light and was big enough to walk from the rear of the ship to the front then by walking from the rear of the ship to the front that person would be traveling faster than the speed of light.

Sound isn't mass or matter. It is an effect on air, think of a small sound as a 'ripple' and a large sound as a tsunami. However we hear sound because of air.

FTL isn't possible in the normal sense because we would not have enough energy to power the acceleration of a spaceship the size of a cat let alone a larger sci-fi like cruiser. This is of course for normal space. If one tunneled through one could arrive at the location in a fraction of time-covering vast distances in normal space. But in reality-very little movement (since it was a tunnel).

Tachyons are an interesting possibility though.

reply to post by tarifa37


The speed of sound changes upon the medium it is carried via. The Concorde jet, the one that broke the sound barrier, cheated a bit by achieving an altitude of 60,000ft - more than twice the altitude of a normal passenger jet. If I'm not mistaken, higher altitude > thinner air > less medium for sound to travel by > the speed of sound is slowed.

I could be mistaken, this is all from memory. But just my two cents.

On the part about negative mass. I could be wrong about this, but I dont think it is possible to have a negative in that value. Certain particles seem to teleport (FTL), spooky entanglement shows communication between particles as well-where one will have an imprint of the other and both will change at the same time.

But I dont think you can have a true negative value for mass. Could be wrong, don't think I ever read anything saying you couldn't, just seems like a contradiction of definition to me.

Originally posted by paranoiaFTW
Why is it impossible to travel faster then the speed of light?
...
It might just be my lack of knowledge that makes me jump to that conclusion, so I was just wondering if anybody knows why this is impossible.

There are two reasons:

1- 2nd postulate (light always travels at c on your own reference frame). This is assuming the theory of relativity is correct - without this postulate one cannot use that theory as reference.

2- Causality: If information could travel faster than light, you would have gotten this reply before you even typed your question: www.theculture.org...

They wont teach you this anywhere, but....

You can't go faster than light because everything is made of light.

That is like asking why a Lamborghini can't go faster than a Lamborghini.

Originally posted by ALLis0NE
They wont teach you this anywhere, but....

You can't go faster than light because everything is made of light.

That is like asking why a Lamborghini can't go faster than a Lamborghini.

"everything is made of light" could you please explain not sure I am with you on that one.

Originally posted by ALLis0NE
They wont teach you this anywhere, but....

You can't go faster than light because everything is made of light.

That is like asking why a Lamborghini can't go faster than a Lamborghini.

Is that an odd interpretation of e=mc2? (odd as in a literal interpretation of all matter is stateful energy), or is it a new age type interpretation?

(edit)
I ask because light isnt really matter so much as a wave..

[edit on 13-12-2009 by lordtyp0]

as far as I can tell in this subject! sound does not exist, its only vibration, sound exist between our ear and brain! so how does one guess the speed of sound? we have created our reality using our 5 senses! which is just our brain being active. if we talk about light, then man has created artificial light! and there for have the ability to travel at the speed of light! it is beyond our comprehension but not impossible! we create everything so we create light! IMO .

Originally posted by daniel_g

Originally posted by paranoiaFTW
Why is it impossible to travel faster then the speed of light?
...
It might just be my lack of knowledge that makes me jump to that conclusion, so I was just wondering if anybody knows why this is impossible.

There are two reasons:

1- 2nd postulate (light always travels at c on your own reference frame). This is assuming the theory of relativity is correct - without this postulate one cannot use that theory as reference.

2- Causality: If information could travel faster than light, you would have gotten this reply before you even typed your question: www.theculture.org...

Boo on number 2 things can only have an effect after a cause. The speed it occurs is irrelevant to that. Similar to the touted paradox of "If you travel faster than the speed of light to pluto, you can watch yourself leave" well.. you are only watching an image, like a video recording. You are not actually on earth, you simply beat the image of you leaving to pluto.

"violations of causality" really mean that something was left out of the equation. The beating information thing is more of a time paradox. Not one of velocity.

(edit for incomplete sentences)

[edit on 13-12-2009 by lordtyp0]

Originally posted by dougie_s83
as far as I can tell in this subject! sound does not exist, its only vibration, sound exist between our ear and brain! so how does one guess the speed of sound? we have created our reality using our 5 senses! which is just our brain being active. if we talk about light, then man has created artificial light! and there for have the ability to travel at the speed of light! it is beyond our comprehension but not impossible! we create everything so we create light! IMO .

Sort of... The speed of sound is a measurement of an arbitrary value (ie: seconds, minutes, hours over a distance: feet, miles etc.). The recognized speed of sound is under a medium of "air" at sea level. There is no "speed of sound" at least literally-in space, simply the value we applied to it.

Same with light. Determining the speed at which someone moves from point A to point B is easy. The naming and distance values are the perception part. The rest is though fun to talk about is really too Decartes to be useful in physics.

(edit: stupid typos, second edit: I had "miles" instead of "hours"... Ugh)

[edit on 13-12-2009 by lordtyp0]

[edit on 13-12-2009 by lordtyp0]

Theory: If any matter had a propulsive mechanism that was constant by a fuel source that could remain unemptied, there would be no limit to speed through space. It would be increasing indefinitely, provided the matter could remain intact. What I mean is, it doesn't collide with other matter or gravitational influence that would inhibit it.

reply to post by lordtyp0


yes I agree sir.... however if we use these measurement's to our understanding! we base them on the earth's movements in orbit of the moon,sun, so we are able to calculate secs, minutes, hours,days,weeks,months years! so to understand light we must use a different form of measurement! as we don't base our measurements on light or sound so can't apply! in saying that its all relative anyway!

Originally posted by 2compelled
Theory: If any matter had a propulsive mechanism that was constant by a fuel source that could remain unemptied, there would be no limit to speed through space. It would be increasing indefinitely, provided the matter could remain intact. What I mean is, it doesn't collide with other matter or gravitational influence that would inhibit it.

The fuel source isn't the only issue. The greater the inertia the more energetic the fuel has to be. The maximum velocity of an object going --> that way cannot be greater than the velocity going