Exceeding Light!

[Crystal Cuckoo]

Well, exceeding the speed of light is impossible.

The closer you get to c, the more weight your ship gains, and thus more fuel is required to maintain that speed (and accelerate it) until you need an infinite amount of fuel to reach c.

Also, time slows as you get closer to c, to the point where if you reach it, time will stop. Also, you'll be invisible due to length contraction.

 

[Spencer Petersen]

When you hit the speed of light, any extra energy being used to accelerate the object is instead turned into mass at the rate of E=MC^2

 

[Quaxar]

Time travel doesn't exist because time doesn't exist.

Quantum theory provides for more interesting theoretical travel than traditional FTL theory. Plus you start getting into the notion of whether or not we have "souls"; if a group of particles realign into your exact configuration hundreds of thousands of miles away, is it you?

Damn you with your avatar, I got Farnsworth'd!

I think I prefer my superluminar travels made possible through additional dimensions (slipstream) or wormholes. At least this versions try to stay a bit accurate regarding physics.

 

[Crystal Cuckoo]

Well, exceeding the speed of light is impossible.

The closer you get to c, the more weight your ship gains, and thus more fuel is required to maintain that speed (and accelerate it) until you need an infinite amount of fuel to reach c.

Also, time slows as you get closer to c, to the point where if you reach it, time will stop. Also, you'll be invisible due to length contraction.

But what if you were to accelerate in a weightless environment e.g. space? Would that counteract the gain in mass?

Nope. If you want to increase your speed (which is what I assume you would want to do) you have to have some sort of propulsion no matter what your weight is. If you stopped the thrust, then you would continue traveling at the same speed, neither slowing nor gaining speed. Thus, as you gain speed, you gain more weight, thus needing more acceleration, creating more weight, etc until you would need a preposterous amount of fuel to reach c.

 

[crudus]

Ok, so thanks to the gamma factor we can see that a ship traveling at the speed of light would have infinite mass. Now lets look at Newtons equation for gravity: M/r^2. If M equals infinity then it doesn't matter how big r is, the gravity is still infinity. That being said: the universe implodes.

if a group of particles realign into your exact configuration hundreds of thousands of miles away, is it you?

First we would need to define what makes us, us. That is however a different topic for a different time. (for the record I do say it is me only if our thoughts and reactions to varies stimuli are exactly the same. Even if the wording or emphasis on each word in the thought would have to be the same.)

 

[xXAsherahXx]

Ok, so thanks to the gamma factor we can see that a ship traveling at the speed of light would have infinite mass. Now lets look at Newtons equation for gravity: M/r^2. If M equals infinity then it doesn't matter how big r is, the gravity is still infinity. That being said: the universe implodes.

if a group of particles realign into your exact configuration hundreds of thousands of miles away, is it you?

First we would need to define what makes us, us. That is however a different topic for a different time. (for the record I do say it is me only if our thoughts and reactions to varies stimuli are exactly the same. Even if the wording or emphasis on each word in the thought would have to be the same.)

That brings up the thought of teleportation, is that possible? I say no because your molecules and cells would get screwed up beyond recognition. So if what FieryTrainWreck said actually happened, it would definitely not be you, in my opinion.