travelling in speed of light

chellovack · Post by **chellovack** » Wed May 02, 2007 5:14 am

hey guys ive been wondering, if you can travel in the speed of light which scientist say could take about 4.8 lightyears to reach alpha centauri. will you have to wait 4.8 years or will you experience shorter time to reach it? relativity is involved here. they say if you travel in the speed of light for a year, you will fast forward time a hundred years(something like that).i'm guessing, if it took 5(approx) minutes for light from the sun to reach earth, (you are the light in this case) will you experience 3 seconds of travelling or will it still be 5 mins?

sorry if i've produced the information incorrectly, or if you dont understand i'll try to clarify.

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GodIsYourself · Post by **GodIsYourself** » Wed May 02, 2007 6:34 am

Speed of light is how fast light travels. A light year is how many years it takes to get to us. So 4.5 light years is that light was traveling 4.5 years before were seeing it, so the light from Alpha we see today is, well 4.5 years old.

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chellovack · Post by **chellovack** » Wed May 02, 2007 10:02 am

GodIsYourself wrote: Speed of light is how fast light travels. A light year is how many years it takes to get to us. So 4.5 light years is that light was traveling 4.5 years before were seeing it, so the light from Alpha we see today is, well 4.5 years old.

i know that theory and agreed it, but what if we travel in the speed of light, what happens to time?

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GodIsYourself · Post by **GodIsYourself** » Wed May 02, 2007 2:23 pm

Time will stay the same, just becuase your moving very fast doesnt speed up how fast your watch will turn.

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Stasi · Post by **Stasi** » Wed May 02, 2007 10:17 pm

Chellovack is specifically asking about how Relativity factors into it.

Here's a link that explains Relativity:

http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/vvc/theory/relativity.html

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Thu May 03, 2007 12:41 pm

GodIsYourself wrote: Time will stay the same, just becuase your moving very fast doesnt speed up how fast your watch will turn.

Yeah exactly, I don't even get where people get that you will change speed of time. If you can travel around the earth at a super high speed does not mean you'll go forward or backwards a day. You'll just end up coming back to the same spot you were so and so time ago, and that time will have elapsed.

The concepts behind time machines and such is mind boggling but really bottom line is we can't travel in time.

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scherzo · Post by **scherzo** » Fri May 04, 2007 12:55 am

Red Squirrel wrote:

The concepts behind time machines and such is mind boggling but really bottom line is we can't travel in time.

The statement 'we can't travel in time' is realative. We all travel through time, we are always moving forward

If a frog can overwinter while frozen, does the frog experience time as the same as us? or does the frog percieve time the same, and what of the effects of time, does the frog 'age' while frozen?

if the frog can indeed travel 'forward' in time. then the opposite must be true (imo)

there are only 2 facts that can be concluded

It is possible to travel through time
It is impossible to travel through time

and the possible 'paradox's' are irrelevant to facts

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manadren · Post by **manadren** » Fri May 04, 2007 1:41 am

I think what chellovack is talking about is the idea of time dilation. wikipedia

For instance if you were on a ship going from point a to point b at near the speed of light, time as relative to you on the ship would move slower than time as relative to the rest of the world. So, you might perceive that a trip took only a few minutes, that actually took hours or days as relative to the rest of the world.

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michaelk1993adg · Post by **michaelk1993adg** » Sat May 05, 2007 5:18 pm

but havnt you seen red vs blue where they travel to the future by going the speed of light in their space ship and there like "what happened and then the other guys like "which drive did you use the llight drive or the hyper drive and the girls like "which ones the hippy drive the one with all the knobs or the other one with all the knobs" and hes like "yeah you pry used the light drive and as einstien hypothisized when you travel at or near the speed of light time slows down for you" so it must be true.

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michaelk1993adg · Post by **michaelk1993adg** » Sat May 05, 2007 5:19 pm

wait what is the relationship between light and time.

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michaelk1993adg · Post by **michaelk1993adg** » Sat May 05, 2007 5:21 pm

And if you had a hyper drive that cant go the speed of light what would be the point of haveing it whaen you have a light drive plus what about the accelaration that would add a couple of miliseconds to the time.

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scherzo · Post by **scherzo** » Sat May 12, 2007 3:09 am

michaelk1993adg wrote: wait what is the relationship between light and time.

time is measured by the speed of light, as light reflects off objects and we can observe it, the theory is if you go faster than light, light cannot reflect off you only light from an 'earlier' time - hence travel backward in time, what you would see is light reflected from an earlier time, allowing you to observe the past

as light is being reflected off the earth it travels at the speed of light away, if you go fast enough you can see yourself leave

as a note, current theories say it is impossible to travel faster as the amount of energy needed squares itself to a point no matter how fast you go you can never achive the speed of light, however it is my opinion this is flawed, it is like saying no matter how big the sail and small or light the boat, we cannot travel faster than the wind. We have gone faster than the wind and faster than sound.

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