What happens if you move faster than light

So, simply going faster than light does not inherently lead to backwards time travel. Very specific conditions must be met—and, of course, the speed of light remains the maximum speed of anything with mass.

There is a lot more to this fascinating topic than this blog post can cover, so if you have any questions, comments, or concerns whatsoever, leave a comment, and I will do my best to address it! The Open University: The Grandfather Paradox — Second Adventures in Thought A brief video introduction to the grandfather paradox and its troubling implications for backward time travel.

Wikipedia: The Tachyonic Antitelephone A modest proposal for a way to send messages back in time. Support Provided By Learn More. Receive emails about upcoming NOVA programs and related content, as well as featured reporting about current events through a science lens.

Email Address. Zip Code. You might say that maybe Einstein's theories of relativity are wrong. However, there is so much evidence now supporting relativity that, if it is wrong, it will have to be wrong in a small way that does not change these basic principles.

The restriction that nothing can travel faster than light is not as limiting as it seems. A more accurate statement of the principle would be, "nothing can locally travel faster than light. For instance, if wormholes exist, you could use one to take a shortcut from earth to the North Star.

Compared to a bit of light that traveled from earth to the North Star and did not go through the wormhole, you would have been traveling faster. Except for light, that is. All observers, no matter what their own speed, will measure the speed of light at a constant ,, meters per second about million miles an hour. This speed represents the fastest that anything can travel, an absolute upper limit on motion. The new findings threaten to overturn this trusted law. Special relativity states that nothing can go faster than the speed of light.

If something were to exceed this limit, it would move backward in time , according to the theory. The new finding raises all sorts of thorny questions. If the neutrinos really are traveling faster than light, then they should be time travelers. The particles could theoretically arrive somewhere before they departed.

Physicists suggest such an ability, if it really existed, could be used to send neutrinos back in time to deliver messages. A fundamental law of physics, indeed of all science, is causality: that cause always precedes effect. This was accepted in classical physics, and the special theory of relativity took pains to preserve the rule, despite the relativity of an object's motion.

But if something can travel faster than light, it can travel backward in time, according to the theory. In this case, an "effect" could travel back to a point before its "cause" had occurred — for instance, a baby swinging before he gets a push.

Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. Science Vs. What If. Since such a case remains impossible, no known object can travel as fast or faster than the speed of light. How fast is the speed of light in miles?

The speed of light in a vacuum is , kilometers per second, which translates to , miles per second. Hypothetically, this means that if an object could travel at the speed of light, it could go around the Earth 7.

Why is "c" the speed of light? What is the speed of light on Earth? Light bends when it comes in contact with any matter - even dust - causing a slight decrease in speed. That said, light traveling through Earth's atmosphere moves almost as fast as the speed of light in a vacuum. What if dinosaurs were alive today? What if medical science cured all diseases?

What if we put an end to famine?