![]() ![]() The more energy you have in your electric and magnetic fields, the greater the effect they experience from passing through a medium. When you pass this light through a dispersive medium like a prism, all of the different wavelengths respond slightly differently. The bluer wavelengths have more energy, and so their electric and magnetic fields are stronger than the redder wavelength light. In a vacuum, all wavelengths travel at the same speed: frequency multiplied by wavelength equals the speed of light. Longer wavelengths, like red light, possess smaller frequencies, while shorter wavelengths, like blue light, possess larger frequencies. White light - like sunlight - is made up of light of a continuous, wide variety of wavelengths. One spectacular demonstration of this is the refraction of light as it passes through a prism. nature of light is both consistent with and a deeper explanation of the fact that white light can be broken up into differing colors. Warp Drive, When? Frequently Asked Questions.Schematic animation of a continuous beam of light being dispersed by a prism. "Ask a High-Energy Astronomer." Imagine the Universe. The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory. E = mc 2 : A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation. See also Accessing Space (volume 1) Antimatter Propulsion (volume 4) Interstellar Travel (volume 4) Laser Propulsion (volume 4) Power, Methods of Generating (volume 4) Science Fiction (volume 4) Vehicles (volume 4).īodanis, David. Ship, it is hoped that the weight of the object could be lowered while its speed increased. If a bubble could be created around a spaceship Whether or not tachyons exist, the ability of particles to travel at higher speeds has not gone unnoticed by scientists. In fact, tachyons are widely believed to be a science fiction concept because it would take an infinite amount of energy to slow down a tachyon to the speed of light. Small subatomic particles such as photons, particles of light, and hypothetical particles called tachyons -faster-than-light travelers with no mass -seem to have no problem reaching lightspeed. That rapid increase in mass prevents faster-than-light travel for humans aboard starships today, yet research is under way to determine ways to get around this limitation. As one approaches the speed of light, one will become so heavy that no fuel will be able to propel the ship fast enough to keep up. ![]() But according to Einstein's special theory of relativity equation, mass will increase as an object goes faster. To travel in a ship at that speed or faster requires a great deal of energy. Using this equation, one can see the near impossibility of faster-than-light travel with today's technology. Amazingly, however, atomic weapons have a very low rate of matter-to-energy conversion. Nuclear explosions are a prime example of matter being converted into energy. A major tenet of physics is that matter can neither be created nor destroyed. ![]() According to this equation, energy ( e ) is equal to mass ( m ) multiplied by the speed of light ( c ) squared, meaning that energy and matter can be converted from one to the other. The science of faster-than-light travel is based on the equation E = mc 2 determined by physicist Albert Einstein. No human could survive for 100,000 years with current medical techniques, and so faster-than-light propulsion would be necessary to make such a trip. The Milky Way Galaxy is more than 100,000 light-years across and is only one galaxy in what is believed to be billions. This means that at the speed of light it would take 4.3 years to get there and 4.3 years to return. The nearest star to Earth, not including the Sun, is 4.3 light-years away. Faster-than-light travel is necessary for space journeys because of the huge distances between stars and star systems. The possibility of traveling at speeds millions of times faster than those at which people travel today has been the focus of much debate and research. Whether science fiction novels refer to it as warp speed, hyperspeed, or lightspeed, the prospect of traveling at the speed of light or faster has enthralled humanity for decades.
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