What do you know about the speed of light?

i heard if you travel the speed of light, matabolism stops (so you would never die of natural causes and wouldnt need food), you would be infinatly flat and have no mass, could you survive that? Any who does anyone know anything elce about this topic or similar topics i find this stuff interesting

 

well first off, where did you get this information that you'd be flat and your metabolism would stop? I would think it would probably just destroy your body to move so fast.

 

Let us assume that you can accelerate yourself to very close to the speed of light (which, of course, you simply cannot do):

1. Your relative mass would approach infinity to an inertial observer because of the Einstein velocity formula, which dictates that mass increases quite sharply as speed approaches c (the speed of light).
2. Your relative width would approach zero due to another form of the equation which states that linear distance along the path vector decreases quite sharply as speed approaches c.
3. Your relative time scale will spread apart as your speed approaches c due to time dilation. To an inertial observer, your time would compress rapidly.

BUT - and here is the kicker - notice that all these things are relative - this means that the changes only occur as a result of observation. This implies that to a stationary observer, your mass, length and time scale changes, but that does not affect YOUR observations as you travel. In other words, no matter how fast you travel, you feel the same. In modern physics, the only thing that matters is the relative difference in velocity.

I highly recommend that if you really dig this stuff, to pick up a copy of Stephen Hawking's awesome book A Brief History of Time. If you have any further questions, please feel free to post them here.

 

Prepair ship, for Ludicrous speed. Fasten all seat belts.

 

neophyte's got it....i've never been able to actually comprehend relativistic mass and speed. it just seems like such a crazy concept, granted ive done all the problems and shit for my physics classes, i just cant imagine what it would be like to actually observe someone looking longer to you or you looking shorter depending on how fast you're moving...lol

there is some crazy shit goin on in physics, but im glad im done w/ it

 

^^^ I assume it would be something like how when you take a picture of a moving car and the shutter speed is a little slow, the car seems stretched out. I know it isn't anywhere near the same concept or principles, just what it may look like?

 

sorry i kinda forgot about this thread thanks neophyte for that lesson i think i might pick up that book or perhaps a similar one if price does not permit me buying the real one. but yea thanks