Since time immemorial, speed has been the primary concern of man. Although we have developed many technologies that are moving at exciting speeds, the speed of light is still superior to everything we have achieved!
Some of you may not have thought about this, but many of you sure have thought... What would travel at the speed of light be like?
1-Man's pursuit of speed.
2-Einstein's theory of relativity
Before the twentieth century, the world was a firm believer in Isaac Newton's view of things and gravity. However, in the 20th century, Albert Einstein came into the picture and changed this world forever.
Einstein's theory of relativity removed many doubts about mass and energy. The mass-energy equation proves that mass and energy are convertible, which means that mass can be converted into energy and vice versa.
It was suggested that there was no standard reference framework. Everything is relative - even time. From this Einstein concluded that the speed of light is constant and independent of the observer.
Therefore, if a person was moving at half the speed of light in the same direction as the light itself, the light beam would appear the same as for a still person.
3-What does the mass-energy equation mean?
This means that if an object moves at 10% the speed of light, it will experience a mass increase of 0.5% of its original mass. On the other hand, if an object moves at 90% of the speed of light, its mass will be twice its original mass.
4-Can we travel at the speed of light?
No, we cannot travel at the speed of light.
If an object is traveling at the speed of light, its mass will increase exponentially! Keep in mind that the speed of light is 300,000 kilometers per second (186,000 miles per second) and when an object moves at that speed, its mass will become infinite.
Therefore, unlimited energy would be required to move the body, which is impractical.This is why no object can move as fast or faster than the speed of light.
5-Assuming that was possible, what would happen if we moved at near light speed?
If we're talking about moving at nearly the speed of light, say 90% of the speed of light, there's going to be interesting observations. For example, a person traveling at that speed would experience a slowdown in time.
For this person, time was moving slower than the time when a person who was not moving. For example, if a person was traveling at 90% of the speed of light, that person would only experience 10 minutes of time passing, while a still person would experience 20 minutes. Time will be cut in half!
Another thing is that your field of vision will change radically. The world will appear to you through a tunnel-shaped window in front of the plane you are traveling in. Also, the stars in front of you will appear in blue and the stars behind you will appear in red.
This is because the light waves from the stars in front of you will clump together, causing objects to appear blue, while the light waves from the stars behind you will scatter and appear red, causing an intense Doppler effect.
After a certain speed, you will only see blackness because the wavelength of light entering your eyes will be outside the visible spectrum. Even with all the obstacles to traveling at the speed of light, it will definitely be the experience of a lifetime!
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