Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: imd321 on 21/09/2010 06:48:36

Title: If light wins the speed race, what comes second?
Post by: imd321 on 21/09/2010 06:48:36

Since nothing travels faster than light (or other electromagnetic radiation), what travels second fastest.  Is there some natural upper limit on the speed which can be attained by other things or could anything theoretically reach the speed of light e.g could a single atom ever travel at the speed of light, could sound travel at the speed of light etc?

Title: If light wins the speed race, what comes second?
Post by: Bored chemist on 21/09/2010 07:34:26

The strange answer is "me".
If you find, for example, a very fast moving electron somewhere then, from the electron's point of view I am very fast, but it is stationary.
Of course, this holds for anyone or anything.
From the practical point of view I think neutrinos may win. It's hard to tell if they travel at c or a little slower.

Title: If light wins the speed race, what comes second?
Post by: syhprum on 21/09/2010 13:55:58

I think the Neutrinos from the 1987 supernovae arrived about 4 hours later than the Photons.

Title: If light wins the speed race, what comes second?
Post by: tommya300 on 21/09/2010 21:37:59

Where ever light's path travels, it will always find that darkness was there first.

Title: If light wins the speed race, what comes second?
Post by: LeeE on 21/09/2010 22:32:28

I'd go with neutrinos too.

Title: If light wins the speed race, what comes second?
Post by: syhprum on 22/09/2010 09:29:32

It is an interesting proposition that sound could travel faster than light, is it possible to calculate how fast a sound wave would travel thru a Neutron star ?.

Title: If light wins the speed race, what comes second?
Post by: LeeE on 22/09/2010 22:07:03

I was thinking about the speed of sound in neutronium too, but it's still going to be < 'c' because it requires the movement of matter.

Title: If light wins the speed race, what comes second?
Post by: Murchie85 on 23/09/2010 00:08:48

Neutrino is the obvious answer for sure (possibly due to its finite or near zero mass) , I would say there are a few other candidates, for example in the standford accelerator electrons are sped up to 99.9999% the speed of light. Also if the theoretical particles tachyon's exist then they would actually be faster than the speed of light (this has obvious temporal implications) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachyon