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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / A thought experiment - is moving faster than the speed of light a possibility?
« on: 25/09/2020 14:05:42 »
We had the following emailed in from Marvin:
Imagine standing beside a supersonic aircraft when it takes off. At it accelerates away from us, we can hear the sound intensity slowly fade as it becomes more distant. But the thing is, we can still hear the sound, because sound travels at a speed of 1,234 km/hour (340 m/second). Now imagine the aircraft accelerates to a speed faster than the speed of sound: the sound it makes can't reach us. What has happened is that the aircraft is moving so fast, it has gone past an event horizon.
Imagine the same aircraft flies into the centre of a black hole. It's speed increases to the speed of light (300,000 km/second) and even faster, so that the light it emits is no longer visible to us. That is also called an event horizon; the point when the object is moving away from us faster than the speed of light.
So would you agree that moving faster than the speed of light is a possibility? Just because we can't see or measure something, doesn't mean it isn't there.
Any thoughts?
Imagine standing beside a supersonic aircraft when it takes off. At it accelerates away from us, we can hear the sound intensity slowly fade as it becomes more distant. But the thing is, we can still hear the sound, because sound travels at a speed of 1,234 km/hour (340 m/second). Now imagine the aircraft accelerates to a speed faster than the speed of sound: the sound it makes can't reach us. What has happened is that the aircraft is moving so fast, it has gone past an event horizon.
Imagine the same aircraft flies into the centre of a black hole. It's speed increases to the speed of light (300,000 km/second) and even faster, so that the light it emits is no longer visible to us. That is also called an event horizon; the point when the object is moving away from us faster than the speed of light.
So would you agree that moving faster than the speed of light is a possibility? Just because we can't see or measure something, doesn't mean it isn't there.
Any thoughts?