![]() ![]() Time dilation affects us all the time in everyday life, but its effects are so small we can't see it. Trying to make a photon go faster than the speed of light is like bringing your car to a stop and trying to go slower. For a photon, there is no time, everything happens instantaneously. Time slows down as you approach the speed of light and when you reach it, time stops. If it doesn't take any effort to move light particles, why can't photons travel faster than light speed? So, if mass can't travel at the speed of light, how come light can? Light is made up of photons, which are massless particles and therefore they don't require energy to move. ![]() At 90%, they would behave as if they weighed 172kg. For example if a 65kg person was travelling at 50% of the speed of light, they would behave like they had a mass of 87kg. But that's not exactly true. The object doesn’t actually gain physical mass but it behaves like it has. ![]() You may have heard that an object traveling at the speed of light gains infinite mass. In order to reach the speed of light, you'd need an infinite amount of energy, and that's impossible! Have you ever been on a fast train or in an airplane? Did you notice that you got bigger during your trip? According to the laws of physics, as we approach light speed, we have to provide more and more energy to make an object move. The speed of light in a vacuum is an absolute cosmic speed limit. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |