I talk and I write about UFOs. Those who actually believe in
UFOs still wonder about Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity and the effect
it can have on travelling faster than the speed of light. The UFO skeptics
always come back with Einstein’s light speed limit to say that even if ETs
exists, the universe is too big and they could never get here. Well, here is
the thing; Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity does not specifically say anything
about limiting speed of an object to the speed of light. Rather what Einstein’s
Special Theory of relativity talks about is time, distance and mass dilation.
The part that is of concern here is the mass dilation. Specifically, according
to the Special Theory of Relativity as an object that has mass reaches speed
approaching the speed of light the mass starts to significantly increase. Many
have said that a massive object going to the speed of light ends up with infinite
mass at the speed of light. It is this “infinite” mass which in turn relates to
an “infinite energy” issue many use to say that light speed and faster than
light speed is not possible.
Is this really true, no I don’t think so, read on.
First off, before addressing the mass issue let’s go to the exceptions
to the speed of light “rule,” starting with Cherenkov radiation. The speed of
light is fastest when it is in a vacuum. As light moves through a medium like
glass, water and other things the speed of light slows down. In a dielectric
medium an electron can, and does, travel faster than the speed of light in that
medium. This results in a blue glow that is seen in the water around nuclear
reactors. In this case the electron, which has mass, is moving faster than the
speed of light and it does not have infinite mass. This example shows that the speed
of light can and in fact varies, and there are a number of theories that go
deeper into this concept.
Another is Gamma Ray Bursts coming from other parts of our
universe. Without going into a lot of detail here, Gamma rays from the universe
have been seen traveling faster than the speed of light. There are various
theories for this, but the fact of the matter is that faster than light travel
is occurring once again with a particle that has mass. If you want to know more
about this you can Google “Faster than Light Gamma Ray.” And lastly, there is
the issue of “Quantum Entanglement.” This is where two particles are entangled
to act like one at the quantum level. Send them off in different directions and
no matter where these particles are in the universe when you measure one of
them you automatically know stuff about the other one. Again, if you want to
know more you can Google “Quantum Entanglement.” I do have say that this whole
quantum entanglement issue is very interesting and I will be talking more about
it in the future.
There is also a very unique argument, actuality a loophole
in Relativity that I recently heard. This loophole is that there is no
restriction on a particle that starts out traveling faster than the speed of
light. The restriction on travelling faster than light applies to the process
of accelerating a massive particle to the speed of light. There is a theoretical
particle known as the Tachyon that always travels faster than the speed of
light. One of the things that are supposed to make String Theory work is known
as Super-Symmetry. There was one version of Super-Symmetry that actually
required there be particles (tachyons) that travel faster than the speed of
light. This did not make physicists happy, so they kind of ignore this version
and go with one that is more to their liking.
The point to be taken from theoretical tachyons is that
there is a reality that exists beyond the speed of light. So, there are cracks
in the “proposed” faster than light travel restriction. My argument is that the
basic speed of light limit is not a restriction, rather it is a transition from
the below speed of light reality to the faster than the speed of light reality.
As stated at the beginning of this piece, the Special
Relativity Theory does not say that speeds faster than the speed of light are
forbidden. Instead, there is a dilation effect as speeds increases.
Specifically, this effect is such that time slows down, distances decrease and
mass increases. In other words, as speeds increase there is a conversion factor
that calculates the dilation effect changes on an object. This conversion
factor is generally known as the Lorentz Transformation. It is my position to
stay away from math when writing about things. However, this is one time that I
cannot as it is important to see this conversion factor in order to move
forward and physically show the transition phase. The following is the
conversion factor:
IF, ‘v’ the velocity of the object is exactly the speed of
light, ‘c’, then
“v-squared divided by c-squared” is equal to 1, which leads
to;
1 – 1= 0
The square root of 0 is 0, so now we have 1 divided by zero
(1/0) in the conversion factor, and this is where the problem/discussion lies.
Many believe 1 divided by zero is undefined so we have a
situation where the math blows up and things are said to go to infinity. However,
I have been taught that this is not the case because zero is a place holder. This
means that division by zero is something that we do not understand yet. There
is also another way to look at this, will ‘v’ ever exactly equal ‘c’? As long
as the two are never “exactly” equal there are no problems.
Currently when doing experiments colliding protons and
atoms, the colliders can accelerate a proton up to 99.9999991 percent of the
speed of light, which is awfully close to the speed of light. Let’s think about
this for a moment, what if something happens and there is suddenly a power
surge that instantly accelerates the proton up to 100.000001 percent of the
speed of light (there are other ways this could happen but going into them
would make this piece too long). In other words, a speed that is just barely
faster than the speed of light. What happens? Look at the math in the
conversion factor. In this case that v^2/c^2 (v-squared divided by c-squared)
becomes greater than 1 (one) so the number under the square root sign is not zero,
rather it is a negative number.
A negative number under the square root sign is not a
problem as it is mathematically acceptable. In essence the negative number
under the square root sign represents a transition into another branch of math
that is used for many things. In other words, there is nothing mathematically or
physically incorrect with the above evaluation, which means it represents a
valid interpretation of the currently available information.
One last point to cover, we have an electron traveling very
close to the speed of light. Would not the expectation be that its mass would
be significantly increased because it has to be approaching an infinite mass?
Since the Lorentz transformation is available I did the math. At 99.9999991% of
the speed of light, the mass of the electron increased by a factor of 7454.
This is a long way from infinite. And, there are many other consideration for
accelerating up to and then above the speed of light that I have not discussed.
The point for consideration here, we are still learning
about the today’s physics so we should not be so quick to write off anything.
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