it is said that nothing travels faster than light . so according to big bang?
447628
This period of "inflation" is one of the big mysteries in cosmology right now.  We have a pretty good idea that something like it happened, but we don't really know how or why.  The timing of the period of inflation fits with the timing of any grand unified theory breaking down, so it may be a result of a symetry breaking of the universe.\n\nThe theories are getting better, but inflation is still one of the toughest topics to try and get a handle on, as the timescales and energies really are at (and even) over the hairy edge of what we know and can comfortably call physics.
51835
The physics community thinks not, but that never proved anything. The assumption is that nothing can travel faster than light. The answers are usually along the lines of, "since quantum entanglement happens instantaneously, its faster than light, but nothing can travel faster than light, so its impossible".\n\nThere may come a future theoretical structure in which lightspeed is surpassed under some circumstances, without temporal repercussions, then this assumption does not hold.\n\nI would add that I think its possible, based on an experiment described in Brian Greenes fabric of the universe that he uses to explain that its not.\n\nIts a simple extension of the two slit experiment where, immediately after the slits you use a photon doubler to create two entangled photons for each one passing through the slits. One for each slit. One photon carries on, the other is bent off at 90 degrees using a half silvered mirror and sent a long distance.\n\nIf no measurement is made on this second photon,, the other photons act as waves and you get an interference pattern. If a measurement is made, they act as particles and you get hotspots behind each slit.\n\nMy extension is that, by choosing to measure the photons that travel a long distance, you can instantaneous make the photons produce an interference pattern or not. Such a pattern would be noticable. If the split photons have travelled many light years, this pattern should be formable in a few seconds, so the message is coded in interference / non interference. Much like morse code in dots and dashes.
1170536
I will attempt an answer that is somewhat factual.  \n\nThe theory does not stipulate that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light.  It stipulates that matter can not approach the speed of light.  In fact a hypothetical partical called a tachyon has been named that has a speed faster than the speed of light.  That partical has an imaginary mass. \n\nThe entire work comes from the equations developed by Einsten,\n\nE= MC^2/ sq rt (1- c^2/v^2)
972241
Firstly, please allow me to substitute your term "speed" for the more accurate term "velocity".\n\nAll particles and waves have an intrinsic velocity  in a vacuum.  The subatomic particle which makes up light is the photon.  The photon travels at an average maximum velocity of 3x10^8 m/sec in a vacuum.  For the exact numerical speed, here is a good source\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light\n\nbut for the purposes of almost all calculations, 3x10^8m/sec is used.  There are physical forces which can slow down the speed of light, and the chief force is gravity.\n\nDarkness is the absence of light, and therefore, the absence of any photons. Therefore, the concepts of speed and velocity are not applicable.\n\nP.S.  There is only one particle theorized to be faster than the speed of a photon, or more aptly put, faster than the speed of light.  That subatomic particle is the "tachyon".  It is further theorized that , because it is travelling faster than the speed of light, it is also travelling backward in time.\n\nP.P.S.  Many of the theories in physics are derived from solutions to various "so-called" unsolvable problems derived from math theory.  In this sense , physics and math go hand in hand.  Therefore, many physics theories are simply supported by math equations until a real life proof can be generated, characterized properly, qualified, and quantified.  The problem here is that just because a math equation may have a solution , it alone BY NO MEANS is proof in and of itself of the existence of subatomic particles and physical phenomenae.  It can only be used as a measuring stick,of sorts,  in order to look for the existence, and therefore, FORMAL PROOF of such phenomenae.
758936
One of the fundamental assumptions of relativity is that there is a finite speed of causality.  Usually this assumption is stated "the speed of light is a constant", but I think the finite speed of causality statement is a better way of looking at it.  So if something could travel faster than the maximum speed of causality, then it could make events happen before it caused them.  That is assuming that relativity is true and that causality is a flexible concept.  If you assume that causes must preceed effects then there are two possibilities for the hypothetical object going faster than light.  1. there is a maximum speed for the object that is going faster than light, so just raise the speed of causality to that new speed and keep relativity  2. there is no maximum speed limit for the object and influences can travel instantly, thus one of the fundamental assumptions of relativity is false and we need to throw out the theory
523357
*\nThe time-honored phrase "faster than the speed of light" might have to be reworked, thanks to the work of a Danish physicist.\n\nBy shooting a laser beam of light through a super-cooled glob of a kind of optical molasses, Lene Vestergaard Hau and her team at the Rowland Institute for Science in Cambridge, Massachusetts, were able to slow the speed of light down to just 38 miles per hour -- not even fast enough for the slow lane of a freeway.\n\nBy contrast, the normal speed of light in a vacuum is about 186,000 miles per second -- 20 million times as fast.\n\n"I would probably not call it God-like, but I would probably say ... we are tampering with nature in a very peculiar, very bizarre way," Hau says.\nlight maze\nHau points to an intricate maze of mirrors, part of the slowing process  \n\nThe research, conducted at the Rowland Institute and Harvard University, was reported in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.\n\nThe substance that slows the light, called Bose-Einstein condensate, is a microscopic glob of atoms slowed to almost absolute zero -- 459.67 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, the lowest temperature theoretically possible.\n\nResearchers believe that it may be possible to slow the speed of light even further, by a factor of 1,000.\n\n"A human could move faster than that" says Stanford University's Steve Harris, who participated in the project. "But a human couldn't move through a Bose-Einstein condensate, I'll tell you that."\n\nResearchers believe learning how to slow light could eventually have a number of practical applications -- improving computers and communications devices, making television displays and laser light shows more vivid and creating better night-vision goggles.
157107
Interesting question.  Actually, it may be that 'darkness' is faster than 'light.'  In the universe, there appear to be vast regions of nothingness, like the inside of soap bubbles, that are expanding in volume as fast, or even faster, than the speed of light.  \n\nIt seems like the presense of nothing (or more precisely, the lack of anything at all) has a very weird effect on the 'fabric' of space-time, causing it to expand more rapidly than space which is near to 'stuff.' \n\nThis is called 'zero-point vacuum energy' and plays an important role in modern views of cosmology.
15559
Light travels roughly 186,000 miles per second. Einstein once said that nothing can move faster than light, and this previously was an accepted truth because visible light was considered to be just a wave of energy. However, when studying how light reacts to strong gravitational pulls, such as one from a black hole, we can see that it bends under gravity. This indicates that it shares some characteristics with matter. It could even have a minute amount of mass. If light shares characterisitcs with matter, then we can harness it and use it the same way we do air in a jet engine. Can we not go faster than the wind naturally blows with a jet engine? Yes. Then I do not see why we can't go faster than light when harnessing light itself as energy.  There have been several questions like this, and I really feel that traveling faster than lightspeed is only decades away.
678688
It's not a yes or no question.\n\nCan one travel faster than the speed of light?  No.\n\nCan objects be moving away from each other at a relative rate faster than the speed of light?  Yes.\n\nMeditate upon this, and you may become enlighted, or enspeeded, or something...
208088
Actually light travels at the same speed no matter how fast it's source is traveling, nor which direction, as long there does not exist a certain level of gravity. Brightness of light however may be relative, except that you will have a definitive amount of photons in a given space...but we have no way of measuring that. The problem with the speed of light, however, is that gravity has an effect on it. Supreme amounts of gravity can actually attract photons and slow them down, or curve their direction towards the object. we do not know whether light actually orbits black holes because it's  constant inertia gives it enough centrifugal force, or if the light is actually sucked right into the object.\n\nYes everything is relative to something else. Your name spelled in English letters is even relative to other spellings of your name. Emotions are relative, hieght is relative, color is relative, even time is relative.\n\nThis is only true if you agree with Einstein's theory of relativity, but you couldn't say you didn't agree with it, because you would have to read all of it to understand. He has math that proves everything as relative, somehow.
64217
to answer your question it is possible to go faster the the speed of light. The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second.\n\nIf zooming beyond the local speed limit is punishable by law, then some scientists may have a gargantuan speeding ticket to pay. \n\nIn a controversial experiment reported in this weeks journal Nature, scientists at the NEC Research Institute in Princeton, New Jersey claim to have broken the ultimate speed limit -- the speed of light. Though hotly contested, some say this achievement could dramatically increase the speeds at which we can send and receive information. \n\nTaught in physics classes the world over, Albert Einsteins theory of special relativity holds that no object or information can move faster than the speed of light in a vacuum, or 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) per second. But NECs Lijun Wang says he created an experiment in which a light beam raced through a gas-filled chamber so quickly, it exceeded the speed of light by a factor of 300. Whats more, the light pulse appears to have left the confines of the chamber before it even entered a seemingly impossible occurrence according to theories of causality, which predict that causes must always precede their effects. \n\n"It sounds crazy, but this can actually occur," said Raymond Chiao, a physicist at the University of California at Berkeley. Chiao, one of a group of researchers who have been working to break the speed-of-light limit, explained that although a common object such as a baseball could never be flung faster than the speed of light, pulses of energy with certain complex properties have been known to bend the rules. \n\n\n\n"It sounds crazy, but it actually can occur." \n\n\n\n\nIn fact, several recent experiments, including one done by Chiao earlier this year, have pointed to energy pulses zooming faster than light speed. Yet each of these experiments has been encumbered by severe limitations on measurement or observation of the energy pulses. In contrast, this latest experiment is being touted by some as the most dramatic example yet of light breaking its own speed barrier. \n\n"The effects are much larger and more spectacular" than previous observations, said Chiao. \n\nIn Wangs experiment, a pulse of light passed through a small chamber filled with atoms of elemental cesium. A light beam traveling through such a medium has two different velocities a velocity for the individual light waves in the beam and a group velocity for the entire beam. Oddly, some light waves in the beam can actually travel backward for miniscule amounts of time, creating a sort of "tail" behind forward-moving waves. As such, a light wave and its tail can leave the gas cavity at different times, creating the effect that the light beam has left the cavity before its even entered. \n\nConfused? Youre not alone. In fact, even scientists who are familiar with this area of study are unsure about the details of Wangs experiment. And many scientists said the experiments results are still open to interpretation. \n\nWilliam Happer, a physicist at Princeton University argued that several specific problems exist with the experiment, including the fact that pulses get distorted when passed through any media other than a vacuum, or empty space. In addition, he said Wang and his colleagues performed the experiment in a way that doesnt tell the whole story, and that it can be interpreted incorrectly. "This is anything but dramatic," said Happer. "If you look at the data, theres essentially no evidence that [the beam] is going faster than the speed of light." \n\nWhats more, most scientists agree that even if such a beam can be proved speedier than light, it would probably not be able to carry any information. Such a feat could conceivably allow data to be sent back in time, thus violating laws of causality and sending quantum physics into disrepair. \n\nOthers are more optimistic as to the possible
845950
well there r lot of major scienctists nowday ... working on it... for myself i do belive that time travels faster than light because we are living in alternate dimension.. inside vortex of time, we can be frozen in time and still time moves past us,the light travels is pretty slow.. when we look up in sky ans there r stars and next day same place, for about 3 days later it will be moved bit forward.. and that star is probably dead or giant black hole.. think about it
90556
Always exactly the same speed, c = 299 792 458 meters/second, no acceleration or deceleration or anything.\n\nThe *apparent* speed of light through glass is less than c, but that is because the photons (the light) bounce off all the atoms and that slows down the speed through the glass. The speed of light from one atom to the next is exactly c.\n\nAlso, sometimes you will read about experiments where the popular press version says some bunch of light has been made to faster than c, but this is just the phase speed and so isn't quite the same thing. You can't send any information faster than c with this method.\n\nThere is an apparent something that goes faster than light in what is called the EPR-effect, a wierd property of quantum mechanics often misleadingly called "quantum teleportation," but again, no information travels faster than c.\n\nThere are hypothetical particles called tachyons which *always* go faster than light - they can't go slower. But no evidence for these have been found and most physicists think they can't exist.\n\nAs for warp drives and other faster-than-light science fiction type things, that, in my opinion isn't possible. Certainly everything we know about physics and the universe now says it is impossible, and it is unlikely that any future theory will show we are so wrong now that we missed this one. Also if FTL is possible then you can have a sort of time travel, and then cause and effect get ruines and, well, its a mess.\n\nBe glad that c is absolutely the same to all observers in every situation - the universe wouldn't work without it.
76903
The latest ideas are that the rate of expansion is accelerating. In other words the "speed" of expansion today is faster than it was a billion years ago, and it will be even faster a billion years in the future.\n\nIt is perfectly okay for the universe to expand faster than the speed of light. What is expanding is space itself (more or less) and light is just carried along. At any one point a piece of light (a photon) is moving merrily along at the usual speed of c.\n\nIf the expansion is slower than light that is also fine. Light just goes merrily along. There is no "edge" to the universe. It either wraps around (so that if you go out into space along the north pole eventually you will return from the direction of the south pole) or is effectively infinite.\n\nThe acceleration of the expansion of the universe is powered by something which is not very well understood at all called "Dark Energy" or, more poetically, "quintessence."
600967
No there is no 'summation' of speeds involved with light.  Light is Electro-Magnetic Energy, although light travels as particles as well as waves.  In this Universe the speed of light is a constant, roughly 186,000 miles-per-second, or 300,000 km/sec or 300 Mega-Metres / sec.  Unless some POWERFUL external force acts upon light, it cannot change speed.  This entails the gravity of black-holes and such. (Not even light can escape from them.)\n\nA vehicle might weigh somewhere in the neighbor-hood of 3,300 lbs. (Approximately 1,500 Kg, for those of you who have not learned to count properly, just yet ...)\nCheck out da' math ...\n\n60mph = 100 kmph = 27.77r mps. \n(1,500 Kg x 27.77r mps) / 9.81 mps = ~ 4,246 N\n\nI doubt, very seriously, that a little over 4,000 Newtons is enough force to even put a dent in the factor of light-speed.  For more info, look-up Einstein's Theory of Realtivity' (Although I believe 90% of it to be short-sighted ancient crap ...)  This subject is covered in it ...\n(umm covered in Einstein's Theory, not copvered in crap .. which err .. is the same thing at times ...
671137
Actually....according to Einstein...if you could survive traveling at that speed the answer would be yes. Einsteins theory states the light from your headlights would be traveling at the speed of light! Let me make this simple...if the auto you were driving was travelling at the speed of light the light from the headlights at any given point in your travel would still be traveling forward again at the speed of light. His theory also states that at the speed of light the only variable that changes is time. Personally, I dont believe in the theory, in particle physics it has been proven that paired particles "know" when their particle twin has had a change of state regardless of how far away from each other they are...this being said...some form of communication between the two must travel faster than the speed of light!
855043
It's all theory, we don't know if (something) can exceed the speed of light. I would argue that time would be void at that moment, but again it's my theory. Interesting thought though.