(ORDO NEWS) — As far as we know, a person cannot move at twice the speed of light. In fact, no object with as much mass as you or me can travel faster than the speed of light.
However, some strange particles moving at twice the speed of light may be possible – and this can send these particles back in time.
Universal speed limit
One of our best physical theories at the moment is the theory of relativity developed by Albert Einstein. According to this theory, the speed of light serves as the universal speed limit for anything that has mass.
In particular, the theory of relativity tells us that nothing with mass can accelerate faster than the speed of light.
To accelerate an object with mass, we must add energy. The faster we want the object to move, the more energy we need.
The equations of relativity tell us that anything that has mass, regardless of its mass, will require an infinite amount of energy. be accelerated to the speed of light.
But all the sources of energy that we know about are finite: they are limited in some way.
Indeed, it is quite plausible that the universe only contains a finite amount of energy. This would mean that there is not enough energy in the universe to accelerate something with mass to the speed of light.
Since you and I have mass, don’t expect to travel at twice the speed of light. light soon.
Tachyons
This universal speed limit applies to anything we might call “ordinary mass”.
However, there are hypothetical particles called tachyons with a special mass called “imaginary mass”.
There is no evidence for the existence of tachyons. But, according to the theory of relativity, their possible existence cannot be ruled out.
If they really exist, tachyons must always move faster than the speed of light. Just as something with ordinary mass cannot be accelerated faster than the speed of light, tachyons cannot be slowed down to below the speed of light.
Some physicists believe that if tachyons existed, they would be constantly traveling back in time. This is why many science fiction books and films associate tachyons with time travel.
There are ideas that someday we will be able to use tachyons to create a time machine. But for now, this remains a distant dream, as we have no way of detecting potential tachyons.
Short cuts?
It’s disappointing that we can’t move faster than easy speed. The nearest star to us, other than the Sun, is 4.35 light years away. Thus, traveling at the speed of light, it would take more than four years to get there.
The farthest star we have ever discovered is 28 billion light years away. So you can pretty much forfeit mapping the entire universe.
However, the theory of relativity allows for the existence of “wormholes”.
Wormholes are the shortest path between any two points. in space. While a star might be 4.5 light-years away under normal conditions, it might be only a few hours away through the wormhole.
If true wormholes exist, they would allow us to travel great distances in a very short time. a short period of time, allowing us to travel to the farthest corners of the universe in a single lifetime.
Unfortunately, like tachyons, wormholes remain entirely hypothetical.
Strange Possibilities
Even though we cannot travel faster than the speed of light, we can still try to imagine what it would be like to do so.
By thinking in this way, we engage in “counterfactual thinking”. We think about how things would or could be if reality were somehow different.
We could consider many different possibilities, each based on a different set of physical principles.
Therefore, we cannot say with certainty what would happen if we could travel faster than light. At best, we can guess what might happen. Will we start time travelling, as some scientists think tachyons can do?
Let me give you and your imagination a chance to come up with some ideas!
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