why cant anything go faster than light?
442563
There's a number of ways to answer this.  Einstein's theory of Relativity says that all things are moving at the speed of light through spacetime, with stationary objects moving wholely in the time dimension.  As you start moving, some of your velocity is directed away from time and in a physical dimension.  When you approach the speed of light, you are traveling very little in the time dimension and mostly in the physical dimesions.  If you actually reached the speed of light you would experience no time whatsoever; your entire trip across the universe would be one instantaneous flash.  However, the faster you travel, the more difficult it is to travel even faster.  When you are traveling relativistically, Newton's second law of F=ma no longer applies.  You continue adding force, but rather than creating acceleration, you'll begin gaining mass.
811109
You misunderstand Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity. It doesn't say that you can't have something move faster than the speed of light. Only "information" can NOT move faster than the speed of light. By information, I mean any "signal", like electromagnetic waves (which includes light, radio waves, etc. etc.). Any material object within the Universe are also restricted by Special Relativity, since material objects also carry "information".\n\nFor the Universe or the fabric of spacetime to be expanding faster than the speed of light is NOT a violation of Special Relativity, and the Universe will not be moving backwards in time.\n\n--------------------------------------------------------\n\nEdit - Ok, here let me clarify why I said that Special Relativity (SR) does NOT apply to the expansion of the Universe:\n\nVelocity of something depends on which definition of distance we use. So, if we assume that the distance of an object at time t is the distance from our position at time t to the object's position at time t measured by a set of observers moving with the expansion of the Universe, and all making their observations when they see the Universe as having age t, then the velocity (change in D per change in t) can definitely be larger than the speed of light. This is not a contradiction of special relativity because this "distance" is not the same as the spatial distance used in SR, and the age of the Universe is not the same as the time used in SR.\n\nIn the special case of the "empty Universe", where one can show the model in both special relativistic and cosmological coordinates, the velocity defined by change in cosmological distance per unit cosmic time is given by v = c ln(1+z), where z is the redshift, which clearly goes to infinity as the redshift goes to infinity, and is larger than c for z > 1.718.\n\nFor the "critical density Universe", this velocity is given by v = 2c[1-(1/sqrt(1+z))], which is larger than c for z > 3. \n\nFor the "concordance model" based on CMB data and the acceleration of the expansion measured using supernovae, a flat Universe with Omega = 0.27 (this would be our Universe), the velocity is greater than c for z > 1.407\n\nAll this just means that for any expanding universe, there will be a value of z (i.e., redshift or cosmological distance) that will give the appearance of galaxies moving at velocities greater than c.
547591
Since no physical object can travel that fast, the question makes no sense.
214684
No massive object can move at the speed of light, so the question is ill-posed. Sorry.\n\nAs a physicist, please let me give you a little advice: don't loose your time with this nonsense, try instead to focus on the mathematics of the relativity theory, that's the way to understand it. The rest is pseudo-science.
1113063
No. It's the gravity they can't escape. (Light is ultimately made up of particles.) Speed is not an issue.
647799
You can't go at the speed of light. It's a theorical limit, so it's unreacheable. Only the light can reach it.\n\nIf C is the speed of light, the fastest you can get is C*0.999999999... (insert as many '9' as you want). When you turn on the headlights, they will be somewhat faster: they'll reach the speed of light.
134543
I believe that warp speed is supposed to be significantly faster than the speed of light (given that they sometimes consider three light years a minor detour), and it's not possible to go faster than the speed of light.  The concept of manipulating space in such a way that they can essentially create worm holes it less unrealistic, but is still purely science fiction.
64267
Well, if you're traveling faster than light, then the light can never be in front of you.  There would be just a big nothing, probably drive you crazy if you looked at it.  I know, I come from andromeda.  We travel through space backwards so we can see where we're going.
883877
Going faster than light speed violates the laws of special relativity.  You simply cannot start at rest or any velocity less than light, reach light speed, then get faster.  However, it does not violate special relativity if your starting velocity is faster than light.  This is how tachyons are hypothesized.  When a tachyon forms, it immediately starts which a velocity faster than light.  Therefore it can never slow down to the speed of light or less.  If tachyons exist, they'll give off a certain type of radiation so they won't be invisible. \n\nSo in other words, it will never be possible for us to make some spaceship or anything that can go faster than light, which means no "warp drives" or anything like that.
347791
Your example is actually a good one for how we know no one can travel faster than the speed of light.  The people on the boat would measure the same speed for the beam of light as those standing on the shore.\n\nEinstein's theory of special relativity states that, regardless of your motion, light's speed remains constant.  Space and time warp in order to make light's speed constant from all perspectives.  As matter gets closer and closer to the speed of light, space stretches and time contracts, requiring infinite energy to reach the speed of light.  Only things with no mass (i. e. energy only) can travel at the speed of light, and nothing we know of can go faster.\n\nHowever, Einstein's theories do suggest that we could bend space and time to allow us to get around the speed of light.  We can't travel a trillion miles per second, but, with enough energy, we could shift some spot a trillion miles away to right next to us.
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.
109643
No you can not.\nNothing can travel faster than light. Not even light itself.\n\nIf you think that light is a wave (like a wave on the ocean) Imagine that you were riding one wave and were trying to make a new wave from your position (with equal frequenzy ofcours). The new wave would not have twize the speed as the one you were riding, it would have the same speed as the one you ride (try in the bathroom and you will see).\n\nMy point with this explanation is that the light from the back of your car will never reatch the mirror. I think your mirror would seem black, because no light would reatch it. The lightwave from the back of your car would be "flying" towards the mirror in the same speed that the mirror would fly from it. :)
72176
If you're asking about some mass being accelerated up to and beyond the speed of light, no it is NOT possible. Einstein theorized that the faster an object moves, the greater will become its mass. This increased mass would require more energy to accelerate it even more, which in turn would increase its mass, which would require more energy to go faster, etc., etc.,. Ultimately to get this object up to the speed of light would require infinite energy, and that's impossible. This isn't just theory anymore either; mass increase versus velocity has been observed countless times in modern particle accelerators.\n\nOf course there are plenty of sci-fi novels, TV shows and movies (like Star Trek and warp drive) where things move faster than light, but unless someone can find a way around Einstein and all the evidence that he was right we'll never be able to attain FTL travel.\n\nBy the way...worm holes don't provide a way to MOVE faster than light. So-called worm holes, if they exist at all, are nothing more than short cuts; going through a worm hole you'd still have to obey the speed limit imposed by Einstein.\n\nPersonally I hope that some day some radically new branch of physics is found that would allow us to get around Einstein, but right now it doesn't look too good.
364291
No, because according to Einstein's equations, to accelerate anything towards the speed of light would require more energy than exists in the universe (after converting all matter to energy).\n\nThere is a theoretical particle that never goes slower than the speed of light, but it has not been experimentally proven. They're called tachyons. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than-light
25993
No.  No terrestrial object can travel at the speed of light.  If you were traveling at the speed of light you would literally dissentigrate from the millions of pounds of air resistance pinning you down.
763848
you couldn't drive at the speed of light.  But if you could drive near the speed of light, and turned on your headlights, light would leave your car at the speed of light relative to the car.  Einstein asked this very same question (except I think he used a train).  ANYWAY......this seems paradoxical and impossible.  But it's not....because TIME and SPACE (and distance and mass and all other measly "constants") change in order to make this possible that the speed of light still remain a constant.\nP.S. - Don't expect to understand all of this at once.  I'm pretty bright and it took me quite awhile to catch on to just how it works.
351358
The first answerer is right about the mass increase.  As a mass approaches the speed of light, one of the effects is that the more energy you provide it in order to increase its velocity, the more the mass increases, according to Einstein's famous formula E=mc^2.\n\nThe speed of light is the absolute limit for velocity.  A mass can approach closer and closer to this speed, but can never surpass it.  So, to answer your question, mankind can and likely will build spaceships which can go significantly faster than the present-day ones can, but we will never be able to travel at the speed of light.