• Question: What would happen if you moved at the speed of light

    Asked by anon-181562 on 11 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Lauren Burns

      Lauren Burns answered on 11 Jun 2018:

      You would stop experiencing the flow of time! The quicker you go, the slower time passes for you compared to everyone else. However, you would have to lose a lot of mass, as the only things we have seen travelling at the speed of light are photons in a vacuum (like in space), and these are effectively mass-less 🙂

    • Photo: Alex Haragan

      Alex Haragan answered on 12 Jun 2018:

      Modern quantum physics theories are trying to ascertain if this is possible.
      As lauren has said – having mass is the issue.
      Classic Einstein physics determines the closer you move to the speed of light the more energy you require, which increases your mass and means you can never get there.
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      Light can be see as both photon particles and as a wavelength. Modern quantum theories suggest that, maybe photons don’t actually move, but they switch rapidly between quantum states which gives the illusion of moving.
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      It’s not really in my area of expertise! But basically, it seems we will never be able to move that fast. However you could get (relatively) close – and as Lauren has said, you’d experience time in the same way, but relative to everyone else you’d be moving through space and time faster – so what to you feels like a day might be a week to someone observing.
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      For me its all a bit hard to get your head round!

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