Break the light barrier?

S

solokin1

Temporal Novice
I have found out that it is, indeed, possible to travel faster than the speed of light! According to Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, your mass increases as your velocity increases. By ordinary viewpoints, this means that it would require infinite force to break the light barrier, as at light speed you would have infinite mass. Obviously since we do not have infinite fuel, this is impossible.

However I have found a flaw (I think:) The rocket that we are using to break the light barrier carries its fuel along, right? And doesn't the mass of the fuel also increase as we near light speed, and so the same acceleration is being produced? Since we have infinite mass and therefore infinite fuel at light speed, we would then have the infinite force required to break it!

So it is possible to break the light barrier...

Tell me what ya think,
Solokin
 
What makes you think that the energy generated by this really heavy fuel would be increased?

I would think about it like this: If you have a rock in your hand and you throw it, it pushes you back. If you are on a frictionless surface and you throw a rock, there is a net force on the rock propelling it to the right and a net force on you propelling you to the left. If you have some kind of catapult on the ship, and it reaches light speed, increasing the mass of it, and you shot out the rock backwards, wouldn't there be a net force pushing you faster? ...nope.

With infinite mass comes infinite inertia. You can't move an object with infinite inertia. Not even with infinite force, which of course could not be generated. The stored force of the catapult wouldn't be enough to move the rock any amount. The fuel would not be able to be "combusted" because of everything's infinite mass.

Also, when you hit the speed of light, time comes to a stop. Probably not for you, but for some observer watching you. So, since there is no relative time change, there can be no relative motion. Anything you did would not be observable by anyone else. Infinite mass/inertia, time stopping; they effectively mean the same thing. You reach a point where you cannot change your observable state. Your perception of time is not observable to the rest of the universe: you appear stopped, and you sure as hell can't slow down, once reaching the speed of light (the way I see it).

I don't think your loophole would work, even in theory.
<Most of the above is based on assumption, and thus, should not be taken as a representation in any way, shape or form, on the structure of our universe.>
 
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