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Speed of light?

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tonkz On February 13, 2014




Croydon, United Kingdom
#1New Post! Oct 24, 2007 @ 14:48:02
I know its currently known as impossible to travel at the speed of light... but if we COULD - woulden't our engine only need to function for a second to get to speed of light ? insted of constant?

coz in space... if you lift off at 30 mph for example, you would stay moving at 30 mph until you hit something. If a spaceship just went to the speed of light, it would just need to stay with its engine on for 1 second or so and then itle continue travelling at that speed? 300,000,000 metre p sec i think it is :S

So yeah... ill write the question out so its shorter and less waffley=

1. Could a spaceship continue to travel at lightspeed without an engine functioning once it builds up the speed ?
treacle On July 11, 2009




B/Stoke, United Kingdom
#2New Post! Oct 24, 2007 @ 14:51:02
Ooooo good Q. I have no idea though
jonnythan On August 02, 2014
Bringer of rad mirth


Deleted



Here and there,
#3New Post! Oct 24, 2007 @ 14:53:34
The problem with traveling at light speed is that it's physically impossible to accelerate an object to that speed.

The mass of an object literally increases with increasing speed. As the mass approaches the speed of light, the mass increases quickly.

Accelerating a mass to the speed of light would literally require an infinite amount of energy - and, at that speed, it would have an infinite amount of mass.
jasonsmith On January 08, 2008




Birmingham, United Kingdom
#4New Post! Oct 24, 2007 @ 14:53:34
no because like anything that relies on an engine for power..like a plane for instance, wich has 2 or 4 depending, will only go so far without it. your in the sky and your pilot shuts off all working engines, what happends? you don't stop but your going to slow down..

so no, a spaceship wouldn't get very far without an engine..
markfox01 On October 23, 2021
innit!





Welshman in Brum.., United Kin
#5New Post! Oct 24, 2007 @ 14:53:39
@tonkz Said
I know its currently known as impossible to travel at the speed of light... but if we COULD - woulden't our engine only need to function for a second to get to speed of light ? insted of constant?

coz in space... if you lift off at 30 mph for example, you would stay moving at 30 mph until you hit something. If a spaceship just went to the speed of light, it would just need to stay with its engine on for 1 second or so and then itle continue travelling at that speed? 300,000,000 metre p sec i think it is :S

So yeah... ill write the question out so its shorter and less waffley=

1. Could a spaceship continue to travel at lightspeed without an engine functioning once it builds up the speed ?


I studied a bit of space travel in my degree and a simular question was asked by my lecturer. He said you will eventually slow down because of friction of the particles that are in space.. space is not a 100% vaccuum like we are all led to beleive..
jasonsmith On January 08, 2008




Birmingham, United Kingdom
#6New Post! Oct 24, 2007 @ 14:54:42
i wonder where space ends...and where it starts..i wonder what is at the end of space..and whats beyond that?..

it's scary..
jonnythan On August 02, 2014
Bringer of rad mirth


Deleted



Here and there,
#7New Post! Oct 24, 2007 @ 14:56:53
@jasonsmith Said
no because like anything that relies on an engine for power..like a plane for instance, wich has 2 or 4 depending, will only go so far without it. your in the sky and your pilot shuts off all working engines, what happends? you don't stop but your going to slow down..

so no, a spaceship wouldn't get very far without an engine..


In the atmosphere of earth, air itself provides significant friction. Ever stick your hand out the window of a car while it's moving?

Wind resistance slows down an unpowered aircraft.

However, there is no air in space. There is no wind resistance. The Space Shuttle orbits the earth at thousands of miles per hour with no power. Spacecraft that we send to other planets, like Voyager or the Mars Opportunity rover do almost all of their traveling under no power whatsoever. They are accelerated out of the atmosphere, placed on a desired path, then simply let go or shut off the engines. They travel at thousands of miles per hour under no power at all because there is nothing out there to slow them down.
jonnythan On August 02, 2014
Bringer of rad mirth


Deleted



Here and there,
#8New Post! Oct 24, 2007 @ 14:57:21
@jasonsmith Said
i wonder where space ends...and where it starts..i wonder what is at the end of space..and whats beyond that?..

it's scary..


There is no end.
markfox01 On October 23, 2021
innit!





Welshman in Brum.., United Kin
#9New Post! Oct 24, 2007 @ 14:57:24
@jasonsmith Said
i wonder where space ends...and where it starts..i wonder what is at the end of space..and whats beyond that?..

it's scary..


it opens your mind doesnt it... and makes you realise no gosh darn way we are alone..
tonkz On February 13, 2014




Croydon, United Kingdom
#10New Post! Oct 24, 2007 @ 15:00:07
@jasonsmith Said
no because like anything that relies on an engine for power..like a plane for instance, wich has 2 or 4 depending, will only go so far without it. your in the sky and your pilot shuts off all working engines, what happends? you don't stop but your going to slow down..

so no, a spaceship wouldn't get very far without an engine..


Thing is, spaceship and a plane are very different, a spaceship will be travelling in a vacum environment. There is no gravity, no air-resistance to decrease speed ONCE it has reached light speed (if we could get that fast anyway).

a plane would obviously crash and fall once engines are cut because of air-resistance and gravity of the earth pulling it down to its crash.

wait... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

i guess if you where at the speed of light, without the engines functional that got you to the speed of light, planets and stars from other systems + our own system would attract the object to its surface?

so if we flew across the solar system a planet like erm i dunno... mercury might pull the object toward it and into its atmosphere?
jonnythan On August 02, 2014
Bringer of rad mirth


Deleted



Here and there,
#11New Post! Oct 24, 2007 @ 15:04:03
@tonkz Said
planets and stars from other systems + our own system would attract the object to its surface?

so if we flew across the solar system a planet like erm i dunno... mercury might pull the object toward it and into its atmosphere?

Kinda, but not quite.

A planet, even a small one like Mercury, does exert a gravitational effect on any other object anywhere in the universe, whether it's a spacecraft flying by Jupiter, a rock in your back yard, or a star 5 million light years away.

However, the force exerted on an object due to gravity from another object is proportional to how far apart they are. In other words, the farther away you get from Mercury, the lower its gravitational pull on you. If you were over in the vicinity of Jupiter, the gravitational pull of Jupiter will be many millions times more significant than the gravitational pull of Mercury.. so you won't "fall into" Mercury from deep space.

It's possible that you could slowly be pulled towards the Sun if the net gravitational pull was in that direction... and you could pass very close to Mercury and get caught in its gravitational field and pull you into Mercury, but that is quite unlikely.
markfox01 On October 23, 2021
innit!





Welshman in Brum.., United Kin
#12New Post! Oct 24, 2007 @ 15:09:00
@tonkz Said
Thing is, spaceship and a plane are very different, a spaceship will be travelling in a vacum environment. There is no gravity, no air-resistance to decrease speed ONCE it has reached light speed (if we could get that fast anyway).

a plane would obviously crash and fall once engines are cut because of air-resistance and gravity of the earth pulling it down to its crash.

wait... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

i guess if you where at the speed of light, without the engines functional that got you to the speed of light, planets and stars from other systems + our own system would attract the object to its surface?

so if we flew across the solar system a planet like erm i dunno... mercury might pull the object toward it and into its atmosphere?

In addition to what you have said..
Aircraft are full of holes.. and depend on the engines to keep a pressure in them. the holes are to stop the aircraft from exploding like a ballon, but just enough for them to let loose the right amount of air (it gets deeper with cabin conditioning enviromental control systems etc but you get the gist..). (Aircraft engineer..
)
tonkz On February 13, 2014




Croydon, United Kingdom
#13New Post! Oct 24, 2007 @ 15:28:20
@jonnythan Said
Kinda, but not quite.

A planet, even a small one like Mercury, does exert a gravitational effect on any other object anywhere in the universe, whether it's a spacecraft flying by Jupiter, a rock in your back yard, or a star 5 million light years away.

However, the force exerted on an object due to gravity from another object is proportional to how far apart they are. In other words, the farther away you get from Mercury, the lower its gravitational pull on you. If you were over in the vicinity of Jupiter, the gravitational pull of Jupiter will be many millions times more significant than the gravitational pull of Mercury.. so you won't "fall into" Mercury from deep space.

It's possible that you could slowly be pulled towards the Sun if the net gravitational pull was in that direction... and you could pass very close to Mercury and get caught in its gravitational field and pull you into Mercury, but that is quite unlikely.


klkl :D
so an object travelling at the speed of light would NOT be acknowledgingly pulled drasticley toward a planet/star/object.

maybe my first message was miss-understood by some people, the spaceship i speak of WOULD have an engine, im merely saying it would only need to be functional, burning up fuel etc for a second to get to the speed and then being in space with no friction to slow the object down it would drift off in a direction at the speed of light. INSTED of keeping a engine constantly running like a car engine because of air/tire friction/gravity to slow it.

I guess the planets small gravity pulls on the object travelling at light speed a little and may slow it down eventually...... hmm, but if it was in interstellar space the gravitational pulls on the object would be so small that it would take years for it to slow it down. + after 5 years i think we'd hit a neighbour system and want to slow down to explore/take pics etc.
jonnythan On August 02, 2014
Bringer of rad mirth


Deleted



Here and there,
#14New Post! Oct 24, 2007 @ 15:35:18
The force exerted on an object by gravity is completely unaffected by its speed.

Whether you're traveling at 9/10 of the speed of light relative to the planet or sitting still relative to the planet, its gravitational pull on you is completely identical.

That's another thing worth bringing up. There is no such thing as absolute speed. Speed only exists as a property of one object in relation to another object. Hence the "relative" part of the theory of relativity. No matter how much energy you put into accelerating an object, an outside observer will never, ever measure that object's speed as exceeding the speed of light.
tonkz On February 13, 2014




Croydon, United Kingdom
#15New Post! Oct 24, 2007 @ 15:39:05
@jonnythan Said
The force exerted on an object by gravity is completely unaffected by its speed.

Whether you're traveling at 9/10 of the speed of light relative to the planet or sitting still relative to the planet, its gravitational pull on you is completely identical.
.


:S - did i emply its gravitational pull on the object would change by the speed?? soz

hmmmm erm so what your saying is no matter HOW far away from a planet/star you are... the gravitational pull is still the same? i thaught it would have less of a gravitational grip on the object the further away it travelled from the pull itself.
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