• Question: Is it true that time would simply stop around you if you went faster than the speed of light thus making it impossible to do so?

    Asked by yourmum to Meeks, Pete, Stephen, Steve, Tom on 22 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by caragh26, labb712.
    • Photo: Stephen Curry

      Stephen Curry answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      Time stops when you are travelling at the speed of light.

      If you then go faster, time will start to go backwards. What a strange and mysterious place it is, this universe of ours…

    • Photo: Tom Hartley

      Tom Hartley answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      I can’t answer this question as I don’t know the physics well enough (at all). I nearly decided to have a guess (it was going to be “no”) but I decided not to. These questions about what happens near to natural “boundaries” are very interesting and ought to be thought-provoking. Even if you are completely barking up the wrong tree, it’s an interesting way to think. I saw another question on this site where a student asked if atoms were completely stationary (at absolute zero) would they exist? I could see where this student was coming from.

      I would just say that if you are thinking this way, you should probably think about doing science or maths at Uni (or possibly philosophy – though that’s not so great for jobs, I think). You may not find the answers to this kind of question but you will learn how to find them out for yourself, which is even better.

    • Photo: Pete Edwards

      Pete Edwards answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Time does stop for any object that is travelling at the speed of light. However only light can travel at the speed of light so we’ll never experience this effect.
      But think about what we’ve just said. If light doesn’t experience time then that means as far as it is concerned it takes no time to travel across the universe so light is everywhere in the universe at the same time…………

    • Photo: Marieke Navin

      Marieke Navin answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      You cannot travel faster than light (in a vacuum, like outer space). A body
      travelling close to the speed of light experiences the passage of time more
      slowly (this is known as ‘time dilation’)

      If you could travel at such speeds then it would appear that time had slowed
      down for you, compared to someone who remains at rest.

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