Mathematicians Extend Einstein's Special Relativity Beyond Speed of Light 381
Hugh Pickens writes "The Christian Science Monitor reports that despite an apparent prohibition on faster-than-light travel by Einstein's theory of special relativity, applied mathematician James Hill and his colleague Barry Cox say the theory actually lends itself easily to a description of velocities that exceed the speed of light. 'The actual business of going through the speed of light is not defined,' says Hill whose research has been published in the prestigious Proceedings of the Royal Society A. 'The theory we've come up with is simply for velocities greater than the speed of light.' In effect, the singularity at the speed of light divides the universe into two: a world where everything moves slower than the speed of light, and a world where everything moves faster. The laws of physics in these two realms could turn out to be quite different. In some ways, the hidden world beyond the speed of light looks to be a strange one. Hill and Cox's equations suggest, for example, that as a spaceship traveling at super-light speeds accelerated faster and faster, it would lose more and more mass, until at infinite velocity, its mass became zero. 'We are mathematicians, not physicists, so we've approached this problem from a theoretical mathematical perspective,' says Dr Cox. 'Should it, however, be proven that motion faster than light is possible, then that would be game changing. Our paper doesn't try and explain how this could be achieved, just how equations of motion might operate in such regimes.'"
Re:First post! (Score:5, Funny)
> until at infinite velocity, its mass became zero.
finally a diet that works!
Re:The challenge of getting past c (Score:5, Funny)
In the alternate universe, they would pay you.
Infinite velocity (Score:5, Funny)
Some parts make sense: At infinite velocity, a particle would necessarily pass through every point in the universe. The particle must have zero mass otherwise the entire universe would collapse into a singularity exceedingly quickly as the mass of the universe becomes effectively infinite.
Just a random thought.
Re:Did you take any science courses at all? (Score:5, Funny)
What? You've never felt a negative vibe before?
Re:First post! (Score:5, Funny)
Every couch potato has already verified that at zero velocity, mass becomes infinite.
Tag: speedoflight (Score:5, Funny)
So that's his secret! Not our yellow sun, not the cape ... it's SPEEDO FLIGHT !!
Re:There is only one speed: c (Score:1, Funny)
Popper understood relativity better than Einstein. He understood why nothing could move in spacetime. Einstein apparently never realized this. Or if he did, he kept quiet about it. Otherwise, most people would have figured out that there is no such thing as bodies moving along their geodesics in spacetime. Just saying. Take it or leave it.
Re:The challenge of getting past c (Score:3, Funny)
This is not new. When I was little some 35 years ago, my mom told me there was nothing stopping you from going faster than light, you just had to start off going faster than light.
Yes I grew up weird. Or maybe everyone else did.
Re:There is only one speed: c (Score:4, Funny)