If I fire a gun while near light speed, will the bullet EXCEED light speed?

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[–]Canbot 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Not a physicist but here is my understanding from what i have read. The additional energy input required to propel things faster is not linear. As you approach light speed the energy required goes to infinity. If you are near the speed of light and add more energy it will eventually just change the bullet into something else. Probably start by heating it into a plasma then do the things that happen in particle colliders.

[–]Zapped 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It was explained to me that the faster you move, the "heavier" things get. The mass of the bullet, like you said, would get harder to propel as you get to light speed.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

Obviously not, but what the math does say is still somewhat surprising

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I didn't remember what the explanation was for this. I'm not sure it's right. I feel like we're missing a piece of the puzzle about the basic nature of everything. Could just be from smoking drugs tho.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

There is certainly more to this than what the author is saying. IIRC the explanation has to do with the difference in how you would experience the passage of time when traveling at near lightspeed as compared to a stationary frame of reference (i.e. I fire the bullet across my ship and it travels a distance X in what appears to be short time to the me the speeding guy, but to the stationary guy, a longer time passes before the bullet travels X across the ship, resulting in different speed measurements ), but I'd need to review some materials as well as being less tired and inebriated to be sure I know what I'm talking about. I'll try to remember to come back to this tomorrow

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Like what if once you go past c it's just not light anymore, it's a tachyon. Always was a tachyon in some weird duality of reality. That bullet may not cause a freaky time dilation to observers, but go plaid instead.

[–]Vulptex 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

No. This is actually an indication that we live in the matrix, that our world has a hard speed cap just like a virtual one.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I'm not sure it does, the big bang traveled faster than the speed of light.

[–]Vulptex 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The big bang never happened. Everything is fake, including your own flesh and blood.

[–]IkeConn 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Nope. Get over it.