No ordinary material thing can be accelerated from sub-light speeds up to the speed of light or beyond, the theory says, for two reasons. First, pumping more kinetic energy into an object that is already moving at high speed has the main effect of causing a relativistic mass increase rather than a substantial increase in speed. This strange phenomenon becomes so pronounced that at speeds sufficiently close to the speed of light, an object's relativistic mass would become so great that for it to approach still nearer to c would take more energy than is available in the entire universe. Second, faster-than-light (FTL) speeds would lead to violations of the fundamental principle of special relativity, which is that all inertial reference frames are equivalent. In particular, FTL communication would enable simultaneity tests to be carried out on the readings of separated clocks which would reveal a preferred reference frame in the universe – a result in conflict with the special theory.
Related categories ADVANCED PROPULSION CONCEPTS
SPACE AND TIME
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