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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JTA" data-source="post: 276254" data-attributes="member: 191063">okay guys, let's complicate things further, shall we ? <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite14" alt=":-doh" title="DOH!    :-doh" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":-doh" />! No, nothing can travel faster than light.Yes, you can get to the edge of the universe in your lifetime.And here's why : it's called relativity ! :-worship The universal laws of physics have some difficult to understand  surprises if taken to their extremes. One such thing is the holy triad of speed, time and distance. Every object in this universe uses a fixed amount of energy at any given moment, partially used for moving around in space, with the remainder converted into time. Hence, the more energy you put into movement, the less will be converted into time. Known as Einstein's law of relativity : the faster you move the slower your clock ticks.It's allways easier to explain things with an example. Say that you want to go shopping to Proxima Centaury, our nearest star neighbouring at some 4 lightyears away. You would go to the space train in the morning, sit down and you would start to read your newspaper while the space train accellerates to 99,99% the speed of light. After reading a few lines, you would see the space train entering the station at proxima. A quick glance on your watch tells you that only 30 seconds have passed since you left earth. You get out and carry on shopping, and by noon you make it back to the space train to earth, where you arrive some 30 seconds later, time for lunch. True or False ? True - travelling at 99,99 % of the speed of light, time is slowed down so much that it takes only 30 seconds to travel that distance. You would be back by noon - 8 years later, but you would only be a few hours older. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite7" alt=":p" title="Stick Out Tongue    :p" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":p" /> Now, at what speed did you travel ? Inside the ship it took only 30 seconds to travel 4 lightyears, so your speed would have been 4x2x60 lightyears/hour, would it not ? True. As everybody knows that the speed of light is 300.000 km/sec, you surely travelled faster than the speed of light, right ? No, wrong. The speed of light is absolute ! Speed is a measurement of distance travelled over time. If you change one of it's components, than you must compensate the other component to obtain the same speed. If you slow down time by half, then you must double the distance which would give you 600.000 km/sec. We now have 3 different calculations for the speed of light ! Which one is correct ? Well, they all are, but only in the environment where the speed measurement was taken, otherwise you're comparing apples to oranges to lemons. All 3 speeds are the same, but measured from other relative points in the universe : the first one travelling at 99.99 % the speed of light, the second one on earth, the third one calculated at a point where time is half that as here on earth. Extrapollating this, it means that the more you slow down time, the greater distances you can travel, whilest keeping your speed constant.Now, let's go to the edge of the universe. You just need to accelerate yourself to the speed of light, to be able to travel infinite distances instantly. If we measure the age of a photon which strikes earth, coming from the center of the universe from 10 million lightyears away, how old would this photon be ? 0 seconds to be exactly : travelling at the speed of light, it took that photon 0 seconds to get here, as there is no more energy to be converted into time at these speeds. It crashed into earth the moment it was released into space. Incidently, that's also why you can't travel faster than light : there simply isn't any more energy left to go any faster !As usual, there's a snag. Once you reach the edge of the universe, you would stay on this edge forever, as the universe itself is also expanding with the speed of light. And as time is halted, you wouldn't even be aware that you have reached the edge - you would remain frozen in time for eternity. I've disregared some "minor" technical obstacles such as instant accelleration, instant deaccelleration, and the fact that you need an infinite amout of energy to accellerate any matter to the speed of light. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite8" alt=":D" title="Big Grin    :D" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":D" /> Bottom line is : you cannot rely on speed measurements as it is relative to your current speed. Changing your speed will change all your measurements as speed itself affects the components by which speed is measured. That's relativity for you !Hope you're all going to thank me for this ..... <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite69" alt=":-ohmy" title="Oh My    :-ohmy" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":-ohmy" /></blockquote>

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