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Friday, October 12, 2012

Things Get Strange When You Travel Faster Than Light

It seems that when mathematicians work on Einstein's relativity equations instead of physicists, that there is no real barrier to going faster than light. Things just get really weird.

Mathematician James Hill and colleague Barry Cox have extended Einstein's equations to show what it would happens if faster-than-light velocities become possible. Their equations show that as something accelerates beyond the speed of light it begins to loose mass until, at infinite velocities, its mass becomes zero.

"The actual business of going through the speed of light is not defined," says Hill. "The theory we've come up with is simply for velocities greater than the speed of light."

Hill believes that the speed of light is not an absolute barrier and compares it to Chuck Yeager flying faster than the speed of sound which, at the time, many thought impossible.

"I think it's only a matter of time. Human ingenuity being what it is, it's going to happen, but maybe it will involve a transportation mechanism entirely different from anything presently envisaged."

As Mr. Spock would say, "fascinating."

For more on this, here's a link to the Christian Science Monitor's article.

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