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[Bohandas]

Christ - I posted it <10 mins ago, and this response... To MY thread?

I think it's time for me to retire, I can't beat this sort of publicity ever again.

People are responding from the future...

[Bohandas]

On a serious note though, the laws of physics as currently understood do not actually forbid objects from moving faster than lightspeed, they mearly forbid things from accelerating past lightspeed; an object can move at superluminal velocities provided that it starts out that way; under certain circumstances objects (typically limited to objects on the subatomic scale) can also jump instantaneously from one location to another without moving through the intervening space.

Have they already ruled these possibilities out.


(oh, and you can also move faster than light by slowing the light down by shining it through an object with a high refractive index, but that's not the kind of thing being discussed here and its cheating anyway)

[Heron TSG]

Actually, the light is moving just at C, it's just apparently moving slower because of how much each photon is zigzagging.

under certain circumstances objects (typically limited to objects on the subatomic scale) can also jump instantaneously from one location to another without moving through the intervening space.

Have they already ruled these possibilities out?

Do you mean quantum tunneling?

[G-Flex]

On a serious note though, the laws of physics as currently understood do not actually forbid objects from moving faster than lightspeed, they mearly forbid things from accelerating past lightspeed; an object can move at superluminal velocities provided that it starts out that way

Example?

[Heliman]

Likely Bullshit example: Big bang happens, particles accelerate from the birth of the universe at a speed faster than light, causing dark matter. there was nothing before it, therefore it was always moving faster than light

[TheBronzePickle]

Isn't the outer fringe of the universe supposedly expanding at a speed (relative to the center of the universe, at least) over c?

Also, since the existence of matter is supposedly a state of spacetime being distorted, wouldn't it be physically possible to move past c by just taking the spacetime with you, therein not really moving past c, but moving past c compared to a nonaffected plane of reference?

[forsaken1111]

Isn't the outer fringe of the universe supposedly expanding at a speed (relative to the center of the universe, at least) over c?

Also, since the existence of matter is supposedly a state of spacetime being distorted, wouldn't it be physically possible to move past c by just taking the spacetime with you, therein not really moving past c, but moving past c compared to a nonaffected plane of reference?

The universe doesn't have an 'outer edge'. It does appear to us that the universe is expanding at a speed greater than the speed of light but that isn't the case. No matter in the universe is moving faster than lightspeed. Stay calm, the world has not yet ended.

[TheBronzePickle]

What speed are we moving at, by the way? I severely doubt we just happen to be at the very center of the universe.

If we're moving fast enough, either our understanding of the positioning of astral bodies is distorted by light's lag, or our galaxy/section of the universe is in its own spacetime pocket.

[forsaken1111]

Think of it like we're sitting on a bunched up and rumpled blanket. The blanket is slowly being stretched out and unfurled, so anyone on the blanket sees everyone else on the blanket moving away from them because the distance between everything is increasing even though nobody is moving relative to the surface of the blanket. In a similar fashion, space is 'expanding' so we observe things 'moving away' from us even though they're not actually moving at that speed.

[kaijyuu]

All speeds are relative. Nothing is "at rest," and if you ask how fast something is going, you have to specific what you're comparing it to.

Compared to earth, lots of astral bodies are moving really really fast away from us. Teleport over to one of them and look at the milky way, and it'll look like the milky way is moving really fast away from it. Thus the universe is expanding, as most matter is moving away from other matter.

Nothing with real mass goes faster than the speed of light as far as I know. There are "imaginary" particles that do; they don't actually exist but give a nice visualization of how electric/magnetic fields work and such.

[Il Palazzo]

Note that the expanding nature of the universe allows for objects to receed from each other at speeds larger than c(as observed by measuring the redshift of faraway galaxies), but it does not violate the principle that no information can move through space faster than the speed of light.

[Bohandas]

As I understand it, basically the objects aren't moving apart, new space is being generated between them.

[Osmosis Jones]

Think of it like we're sitting on a bunched up and rumpled blanket. The blanket is slowly being stretched out and unfurled, so anyone on the blanket sees everyone else on the blanket moving away from them because the distance between everything is increasing even though nobody is moving relative to the surface of the blanket. In a similar fashion, space is 'expanding' so we observe things 'moving away' from us even though they're not actually moving at that speed.

As I understand it, basically the objects aren't moving apart, new space is being generated between them.

Yup. Or you can use a balloon for an example. Draw a grid on the balloon when it's deflated, put a sticker on one of the grid squares, and then blow up the balloon.  The sticker (us) doesn't change which grid square it's on (it's position) despite the rest of the ballon still getting further away.

[Fenrir]

If the universe itself is expanding, how can we tell? It is not like there is anything to which we might compare it.

[forsaken1111]

If the universe itself is expanding, how can we tell? It is not like there is anything to which we might compare it.

We measure it.

With science.

You monster.