Why can't you go faster than light?

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2017
  • One of the most counterintuitive facts of our universe is that you can’t go faster than the speed of light. From this single observation arise all of the mind-bending behaviors of special relativity. But why is this so? In this in-depth video, Fermilab’s Dr. Don Lincoln explains the real reason that you can’t go faster than the speed of light. It will blow your mind.
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ความคิดเห็น • 17K

  • @VoicesofMusic
    @VoicesofMusic 5 ปีที่แล้ว +2371

    In the faster than light world, everyone says you can't go slower than light.

    • @FrarmerFrank
      @FrarmerFrank 5 ปีที่แล้ว +55

      They have gotten photon to go slower then light and even stand still in the lab via a strong magnetic field
      On the other hand they have yet to catch a tachion (?) In those giant pools of water

    • @SkyRiver1
      @SkyRiver1 5 ปีที่แล้ว +80

      According to this video you can't go slower than the speed of light in this world either.

    • @Tinfoilnation
      @Tinfoilnation 5 ปีที่แล้ว +21

      Actually - that would be true. Google fodder is "tachyon" - which is a theoretical particle that, if it existed, would exist faster than light and the same rules would apply. It could not slow down *to* the speed of light just as we cannot accelerate to that speed.

    • @1ch190
      @1ch190 5 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      @Voices of Music That's actually a hella W O K E comment man. Although, it can ONLY be argued if you are said to exist in such a state if you in a relatively stable state of energy or at a undetermined gain vs time spent there. I think there exists a base measurement to go by for the energy gain value required to maintain faster than light speeds and subsequently a factor for acceleration (I suspect it be a runaway value; because of the principle that our universe is not said to be gaining energy.).

    • @StephenNeece
      @StephenNeece 5 ปีที่แล้ว +19

      einstein says a particle cannot be "accelerated" from less that the speed of light to faster than the speed of light.. however a particle could such as a tachyon theoretically could be "born" traveling faster than the speed of light.

  • @benji.B-side
    @benji.B-side 5 ปีที่แล้ว +386

    The was a woman named Bright
    Who flew at the speed of light
    She went out one day, in a relative way
    And came back the previous night.

    • @fromirene
      @fromirene 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      From a good book 😂

    • @Nautilus1972
      @Nautilus1972 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Bravo

    • @allanrichardson1468
      @allanrichardson1468 4 ปีที่แล้ว +28

      To her friends said the Bright one in chatter,
      “I’ve learned something new about matter.
      “For because of my rate,
      “Much increased was my weight,
      “Yet I failed to become any fatter!”

    • @petetaylor9758
      @petetaylor9758 4 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      There was a young fencer named Fisk
      Whose speed was exceedingly brisk:
      So fast was his action
      That Fitzgerald contraction
      Foreshortened his foil to a disc.

    • @ksenobite
      @ksenobite 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @william rivera This is not true, she couldn't have flown faster than the speed of light, since it's impossible,
      so it must be "THERE WAS A WOMAN NAMED BRIGHT, WHO FLEW OUT THE WINDOW SLOWER THAN THE SPEED OF LIGHT. SHE SOON LEARNED SHE COULDN'T FLY AND SHE NEVER CAME BACK HOME BECAUSE SHE DIED THE PRIOR NIGHT."

  • @nycbearff
    @nycbearff ปีที่แล้ว +9

    Why didn't anyone ever explain this to me? Seriously, it took him 8 minutes. I'm seventy f##king one and no one has explained this little fundamental, essential piece about motion through spacetime to me before. Suddenly a lot of other things are much clearer. Damn. Thanks, Prof Lincoln, you're a star!

    • @nobodynobody-zy3ek
      @nobodynobody-zy3ek หลายเดือนก่อน

      I am exactly in the same boat as nycbeaff. Thanks Doc...

  • @dougfairbanks8055
    @dougfairbanks8055 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    I missed a large chunk of this at the start when I read the email, "I am a Nigerian Prince"......just lost it slowly but surely.....thank you for that Sir!....(..& G'Day from Bunbury , West Australia).
    Keep up the excellent work....clarity is much appreciated!

  • @abdullahahmad2474
    @abdullahahmad2474 6 ปีที่แล้ว +2672

    Einstein's girlfriend, "I need two things from u space&time
    Einstein-"Okay what's second"

    • @optimisticoutreach1236
      @optimisticoutreach1236 6 ปีที่แล้ว +39

      That's only a rumor...

    • @youngbougie5560
      @youngbougie5560 6 ปีที่แล้ว +43

      Damn. Savage.

    • @scubaguy007
      @scubaguy007 6 ปีที่แล้ว +18

      Fall in love with physics 😏

    • @giuseppe3010
      @giuseppe3010 6 ปีที่แล้ว +32

      Einstein replied: Wait a second... I'm busy bending time!!

    • @muralibanerjee5645
      @muralibanerjee5645 5 ปีที่แล้ว +17

      I think this request from his girlfriend prompted Einstein to think of SPACETIME and not space&time.

  • @dun8410
    @dun8410 5 ปีที่แล้ว +671

    0:54 So y'all not gonna talk about the Nigerian Prince in the e mails? 😂😂😂😂😂😂

    • @LokeshThakur
      @LokeshThakur 5 ปีที่แล้ว +32

      or the blasphemer who said Einstein was so very wrong?

    • @cgaccount3669
      @cgaccount3669 5 ปีที่แล้ว +80

      It must really suck for an actual Nigerian prince trying to use email

    • @SinghAaditya
      @SinghAaditya 5 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      WTH! I was thinking the same😂

    • @Sturzfaktor2
      @Sturzfaktor2 5 ปีที่แล้ว +38

      Hi, I'm a Nigerian Prince and I discovered this new theory of everything. Pls send moneys so that I can go public! Thanks.

    • @MarianneExJohnson
      @MarianneExJohnson 5 ปีที่แล้ว +32

      The Nigerian prince email is the only sane thing in that inbox. Fraudulent, of course, but sane. 😄

  • @fpvflyer4758
    @fpvflyer4758 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Sir, THANK YOU!! I find this topic very hard to understand.... Or did, until I came across your video. You've made it so easy to understand, and I find it intriguing. Thank you so much! 🙌🙏

  • @vitorigatoni
    @vitorigatoni ปีที่แล้ว +5

    By far the best and simplest explanation of relativity and the connection of space and time I have heard. He knows how to get to the core of the subject.
    Good job! I have become a fan!

    • @yupok318
      @yupok318 ปีที่แล้ว

      fanboy

  • @leefournier
    @leefournier 4 ปีที่แล้ว +702

    “I am a Nigerian prince” in your email. Nice 😂

  • @JIMJAMSC
    @JIMJAMSC 4 ปีที่แล้ว +325

    When you hear "just trust me on this" you know quantum physics is being discussed.

    • @vinaygr28
      @vinaygr28 4 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      but quantum mechanics was not involved. Causality is what drives both quantum mechanics and relativity. that's why you see people say "just trust me on this" in both cases.

    • @wayneyadams
      @wayneyadams 4 ปีที่แล้ว +23

      no, what you hear is are physicists trying to explain difficult concepts to laymen without spending months education them. A video that simplified the concept you are asked to accept would be hours long and would lose most viewers very quickly.
      So before you make snide remarks, which 25 other people like, be sure you know what you are talking about.
      Here is my retort, given at the same level as yours. "When you read comments like the one above, you can be sure it is coming from a non-scientist who is ignorant of the basic concepts of physics." Now you know what it is like to be insulted.

    • @hybmnzz2658
      @hybmnzz2658 4 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@wayneyadams offended by an idiot

    • @vinaygr28
      @vinaygr28 4 ปีที่แล้ว +15

      @@wayneyadams a. its not offensive if my/our comments appear as "obviously not from someone with a physics background". It is an observation and an accurate one at that.
      b. rather than ranting about what someone else didn't do, like spend on education, try to focus on what YOU can do if you ARE someone with a physics background, like try and point us to blogs/papers/courses/lectures that have more formal descriptions.

    • @alicetries5954
      @alicetries5954 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @Abacus false; no ones gives a shit about what you have to say. I was actually interested. But hey maybe thats why only your mom subscribes to your channel.

  • @Roonayy
    @Roonayy ปีที่แล้ว +6

    I've been told that the reason is, that as you move faster, more energy is required for increasing the velocity. Then at the speed of light, assuming you'd ever get there as a non-massless object, the amount of energy needed to accelerate beyond the speed of light would be infinite. And since we could never have an infinite amount of energy, we couldn't ever reach the speed of light, let alone go beyond it. Is this incorrect or just another way of looking at it?

    • @Hadrian_S
      @Hadrian_S 8 วันที่ผ่านมา

      This specific limitation of infinite energy is not incorrect. You would indeed need an infinite amount of energy to accelerate an object to the speed of light. However this is the “engineering” limitation. Something might be theoretically possible but engineering it is another thing. For instance the sun (or any other star) is relatively simple. You collect enough hydrogen in one spot and you can eventually create a star this size of the sun. Easier said than done.
      The engineering limitation on why it’s not possible to have an object with a resting mass accelerate to the speed of light pales in comparison to the fundamental reason it is not possible. A spaceship would not be able to accelerate itself to the speed of light because as it approached the speed of light…it itself would cease to experience time. Any occupants inside could travel for 20 billion years (from an outsiders perspective) and they would have no ability to continue to accelerate because to the occupants of the spaceship not even one second has passed.
      The ship is not able to accelerate itself to the speed of light and no other outside force can accelerate it either because the outside force must also be traveling at the speed of light. Once again you run into the same problem.
      There is no time flow to do anything at the speed of light so how can you possibly ever get there?
      But if you ever did get there you would be stuck forever. You’d be in a stasis for the rest of time. 20 quintillion years from an outsiders’ perspective and not even a nanosecond would pass from your frame of reference. The only thing that can free you from the speed of light would be colliding into a planet or even a speck of dust. If you collided into a speck of dust your ship would be obliterated into quarks and electrons. If you collided into a planet…you would destroy the planet. Either way you are not escaping haha.

    • @Roonayy
      @Roonayy 8 วันที่ผ่านมา

      @@Hadrian_S I think I've heard a variation of this explanation before. Thank you. This topic is wild.

    • @Hadrian_S
      @Hadrian_S 7 วันที่ผ่านมา

      @@Roonayy My pleasure brotha. Sorry if I rambled but this topic is so intriguing. I tried to tell my wife what I wrote to you but she just smiled and nodded politely. Couldn’t care to save her life lmao

    • @cecilchristopher5092
      @cecilchristopher5092 2 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

      From an engineers point of view excellent explanation of the engineering problem. I'm sorry Scotty the warp drive ain't gonna work
      😂😂

  • @krysulam
    @krysulam 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I wanna say thank you so much for saying this in a clear way, I ve seen some videos on this and they couldn't really explain it well to me

  • @ventuslightning82
    @ventuslightning82 3 ปีที่แล้ว +161

    Ahhhh 🤔 So that's why when I go for an hour long run, time only shows 5 minutes have gone by

    • @BOBANDVEG
      @BOBANDVEG 3 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Everything enlarges at that speed also

    • @Godx69
      @Godx69 3 ปีที่แล้ว

      Lmao

    • @ventuslightning82
      @ventuslightning82 3 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      @@radkonpsygami7634 I bet you're fun at parties

    • @lilliangrace9505
      @lilliangrace9505 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      lol! I know this is a humorous statement, but I like inputting so bear with me pls. Firstly, that statement refers to perceived or internal timekeeping, which is notoriously horrible for humans lol. Secondly, the velocity you would need to travel at to even vaguely perceive time dilation or contraction would be way past what a human body could bear lol, but run away flash!

    • @lawman3966
      @lawman3966 3 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      I now think I understand why my one-hour physics lectures used to last eight hours.

  • @RavennaAl
    @RavennaAl 5 ปีที่แล้ว +342

    The true theory of relativity is this; If you're a millionaire and you die without a will, you'll suddenly have more relatives than you dd when you were alive.

    • @nelsonclub7722
      @nelsonclub7722 5 ปีที่แล้ว +21

      Also true if you have a no friends and then decide to get a swimming pool

    • @roobscoob47
      @roobscoob47 5 ปีที่แล้ว

      LOL!

    • @imsidetracted
      @imsidetracted 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      i know comedy when i see it. very funny.

    • @imsidetracted
      @imsidetracted 5 ปีที่แล้ว

      @xc5647321 xc5647321 Same in New Mexico! Talk to some one for ten minutes and find they are your cousin. I was born there, thirty years later I moved back and yup. I lived in Florida, as south as you can get. and nope. My family didnt live here long enough. It really does show though. "It is a small world after all"

    • @alisardo1119
      @alisardo1119 5 ปีที่แล้ว

      Mind-boggling stuff,you got to have some special brains to study ,get involved and invent & discover things.

  • @Eric-gq6ip
    @Eric-gq6ip 19 ชั่วโมงที่ผ่านมา

    Old video, but I've been thinking about this topic quite a bit recently.
    I'm not a physicist so I might be completely off-base, but my take is that anytime in physics that we see an infinity or an undefined in the math we should proceed with extreme caution since we know neither can exist in the universe. Math can be structured to say anything we want, and theories that work great in one regime fail in another like with newtonian physics vs quantum mechanics.
    What's intuitive to me is that speed is always relative to the current frame of reference, so if theres a universal speed/causality limit it implies a universal frame of reference that that things cannot move faster than the speed of light relative to, and that we might be very close to this reference frame to match the observations we see.
    Additionally it implies some kind of carrier medium for light/causality that provides this limit in the same way the speed of sound is limited by the medium it's travelling through.
    I hesitate to call the speed of light a hard limit since if for example we lived in a world of pure sound and that was how we measured and interacted and exchanged information that would be the speed limit for our reality. In our world light fills this role, so from our perspective thats the fastest thing we can interact with, doesn't mean its the fastest thing possible just the limit of our observation.
    Anyways this is a fascinating topic and I might be completely off-base, but math is only as good as the the underlying theory and doesn't always reflect the reality of the universe, especially when infinities and undefined numbers are involved.

  • @CowTownKings
    @CowTownKings ปีที่แล้ว

    It took me a long time to get this one, but it blew my mind once I got it! Thank you!

  • @GlenHunt
    @GlenHunt 6 ปีที่แล้ว +3752

    My bicycle can't go faster than light because it's two-tired.

  • @kth5077
    @kth5077 4 ปีที่แล้ว +452

    ... That was a complicated way of saying, that you can't go faster than light because you can't

    • @kiishaankrishnan6453
      @kiishaankrishnan6453 4 ปีที่แล้ว +40

      Give this man a noble prize.

    • @dabeste6163
      @dabeste6163 4 ปีที่แล้ว +22

      @@kiishaankrishnan6453 Nobel, not noble. **flies away**

    • @theodentherenewed4785
      @theodentherenewed4785 4 ปีที่แล้ว +24

      @@dabeste6163 A prize for nobles.

    • @dabeste6163
      @dabeste6163 4 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @@theodentherenewed4785 Fair enough.

    • @kiishaankrishnan6453
      @kiishaankrishnan6453 4 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      I'm amazed by this community.

  • @sebap_xc
    @sebap_xc 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    It's not tool late to find this out ! thanks for the great job you are doing on this channel

  • @philharmer198
    @philharmer198 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Its Good to see the many responses to this topic !!!!!😀 .
    Its through discussion of ideas that we refine our theories . Its strengths and weaknesses .

  • @amaree9732
    @amaree9732 4 ปีที่แล้ว +165

    I think that my car goes faster than the speed of light because when I turn on my headlights nothing happens.

    • @pushtostart1377
      @pushtostart1377 4 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Daniel Clark they would still turn on you just wouldn’t see the light projecting out in front of you

    • @olegasprince7256
      @olegasprince7256 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      Lol

    • @junkiemonkeyilikemyowncomm7266
      @junkiemonkeyilikemyowncomm7266 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      U funny as hell 😂

    • @robertpatterson3321
      @robertpatterson3321 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Steven Wright: "If you're driving at the speed of light and you turn on your headlights will anything happen?"

    • @jenspedersen9138
      @jenspedersen9138 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@robertpatterson3321 Yes, the cops will notice you and pull you over!

  • @1articoli
    @1articoli 4 ปีที่แล้ว +324

    The conclusion seemed to be, you can't go faster than the speed of light because the speed of light is the fastest you can go.

    • @alfonsocantu9992
      @alfonsocantu9992 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      By sight

    • @GummieI
      @GummieI 4 ปีที่แล้ว +94

      Kinda, but not really, it was more akin to, that "you can't go faster than light because at that point there is no more time movement to trade for space movement"

    • @alfonsocantu9992
      @alfonsocantu9992 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@GummieI "True",and the sound barrier wouldn't be broken but it was so 43 million a second at the speed of "Sight",a man would be in Sun Orbit in half to second and half like I did in 1980 on the Indian Ocean at sunset.Alfonso Cantu

    • @vsh137
      @vsh137 4 ปีที่แล้ว +29

      No, what he is saying is, you can't go faster than the the speed of light is because its the upper limit of our space time continum, or another way of saying it is, Universal speed limit. Its interesting to note that towards the end of the video, he said physicist don't know why the limit is there.

    • @stepbackandthink
      @stepbackandthink 4 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      @@vsh137 This is simply a proposal without a conclusion

  • @consultantone
    @consultantone 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    Outstanding! This was a very nice, and simple to understand, high level explaination for why we can't move faster than the speed of light. Although you didn't get into some of the more intriguing and exotic characteristics of this question, I appreciate how well you were able to convey this information so fast, efficiently, and understandable to anyone. I'll look forward to viewing your other video presentations.

  • @GreaseAndGravel
    @GreaseAndGravel 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Wow, great explanation! first time I've heard it explained this well

  • @jimthorne304
    @jimthorne304 4 ปีที่แล้ว +221

    "There was a young lady named Brght
    Who travelled much faster than light
    She took off one day
    In a relative way
    And came back the previous night"

    • @leonardoleal5092
      @leonardoleal5092 4 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      Good one, mate, a very picturesque short poem

    • @Muralidharan001
      @Muralidharan001 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      You can't go backward in time.

    • @MrBoybergs
      @MrBoybergs 3 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@Muralidharan001 Apparently going back in time doesn't break any of the laws in physics; so theoretically it is indeed possible to do so.

    • @aimxhere
      @aimxhere 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@MrBoybergs But not in the way people imagine it, by going back to past events. In the understanding of physics, 'going back in time' is not the same is rewinding history.

    • @MrBoybergs
      @MrBoybergs 3 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@aimxhere well my understanding is only that resulting from a casual interest in the subject but I'm not sure what you're referring to. Are you talking about multiple time-lines wether going backwards or forwards or something else?

  • @akaku9
    @akaku9 4 ปีที่แล้ว +209

    The email part has to be fake...it's so perfect
    This guy is better at making memes than all of us

    • @i-v-l9335
      @i-v-l9335 4 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Metric Snobbery is a real trope because they think they have it all figured out. lmao = No appreciation for measurement history.

    • @swee2251
      @swee2251 4 ปีที่แล้ว +17

      Did any of you notice the one from the "Nigerian Prince"?

    • @mrkiky
      @mrkiky 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@i-v-l9335 There's a reason why history is history.

    • @ArawnOfAnnwn
      @ArawnOfAnnwn 4 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      It's definitely fake. Look at the receipt times - all those e-mails came within a few minutes of each other. He just had someone send him a bunch of mails for the sake of that clip.

    • @seanstarr1003
      @seanstarr1003 4 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      @@ArawnOfAnnwn w/almost half a million subscribers and videos with views in the millions, I would not be surprised if it was real, even considering the receipts.

  • @smittymcjob2582
    @smittymcjob2582 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Both the notion of space-time and the abstraction explained here are mathematical tools to better illustrate and package the concepts contained in the theory of relativity. Even though I appreciate the simplicity they bring to the subject, it is perhaps a bit of a misrepresentation to claim that an abstraction constructed to simplify the concept is the reason that the concept works in the first place. To expand a bit on the topic discussed in this video, I should say that we have no notion of the speed at which we move through time so to say that when we are at rest then we move through time at the speed of light is an artificial idea that makes sense only in the context of trying to find a framework to make sense of relativity, and so to claim this constructed concept explains why you can't go faster than light seems wrong.
    Neither spacetime nor the Minkowsky abstraction explain relativity but rather are mathematical abstractions to simplify visualizing the consequences of relativity.

    • @philharmer198
      @philharmer198 ปีที่แล้ว

      Smitty , brilliant !!!!!
      Our thinking is evolving ....

  • @richard84738
    @richard84738 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    This was way more clear than most of the fancy flashy pop science channels. Thanks

  • @just_arpan
    @just_arpan 3 ปีที่แล้ว +122

    Love the "I am a Nigerian Prince" cameo in the gmail inbox! 0:55

  • @eladcohen4039
    @eladcohen4039 5 ปีที่แล้ว +664

    This video: "Why can't you go faster than light?"
    Up next: "How to travel faster than light"
    huh

    • @TheTCIP
      @TheTCIP 5 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      notice the same here :)

    • @Eyes-of-Horus
      @Eyes-of-Horus 5 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      When that new fangled contraption called the loco-motive went faster down the track than horses (more than 40 mph) it was believed that if anyone was inside the passenger car science said all the air would be sucked out and everyone in the car would suffocate.
      When airplanes began going faster and faster science said that at the speed of sound there is a barrier that couldn't be surpassed.
      Now, science says (mathematically, by the way) that nothing could not go faster than light. Because as the speed of light is approached the mass of the object increases preventing it from going any further. Science has been wrong before. Who knows what the actual future holds?

    • @mindtraveller100
      @mindtraveller100 5 ปีที่แล้ว +41

      Alex Holub
      You´re being scientifically dishonest.
      "When that new fangled contraption called the loco-motive went faster down the track than horses (more than 40 mph) it was believed that if anyone was inside the passenger car science said all the air would be sucked out and everyone in the car would suffocate."
      Dispite what some stupid people may have believed, science never said that. Specially since it could be easily proven wrong.
      "When airplanes began going faster and faster science said that at the speed of sound there is a barrier that couldn't be surpassed."
      Science never said that either. I don´t know if you realize that, but at that time there were already objects travelling way faster than the speed of sound.
      Remember, you can´t make good arguments using wrong information.

    • @kevb3047
      @kevb3047 5 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      Some of these guys have so much pride in their "knowledge" and "facts"... until a new form of mathematics is invented in a hundred years, or undiscovered forces are found, but til then, "embrace it.., trust me on this.., it's TRUE..."
      Here's one: "don't believe the man who CLAIMS to know the truth, follow the man who's SEARCHING for the truth."

    • @Airbiscuitmaker
      @Airbiscuitmaker 5 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Because it IS possible, however we don't have the technology for that (yet) nor is there any conceivable drive / propulsion system that creates an exhaust speed well beyond lightspeed.

  • @fleetadmiralj
    @fleetadmiralj 12 วันที่ผ่านมา

    Of course, one of the strange inferences from this which he doesn't mention, but is pretty easy to infer, is that massless particles traveling at the speed of light don't experience time. So, from their perspective (if a massless particle could have one), they are everywhere on their trajectory simultaneously. Now, I don't know if that parabola asterisk he said at the end makes this technically incorrect in the end, but it is an interesting thing to think about.
    It also creates this interesting paradox: the possibility that one *might* be able to go backwards in time (by moving through space faster in light, presumably it would have to be balanced out with negative time) but *not* forward in time (moving faster on time would mean negative movement in space which...doesn't seem like it would be a thing? But perhaps that also means negative time also isn't a thing either)

  • @evog35viii
    @evog35viii ปีที่แล้ว +4

    If you're in a spaceship traveling at the speed of light, then go in a random room inside the ship and turn on the light. Does the light from inside the room travel faster?

    • @philipdienelt
      @philipdienelt ปีที่แล้ว

      if you left the earth to traveling at the speed of light to alpha centuri and if time stands still could you ever return? how long to accelerate to the speed of light subject to our planets G-FORCE.

    • @danmoore3660
      @danmoore3660 ปีที่แล้ว

      Yes, because a spaceship can't travel at the speed of light, dork nose.

    • @four_two
      @four_two ปีที่แล้ว +1

      No, the light would not travel faster, it's color (frequency) would appear shifted to a stationary observer outside the ship. This is called the Doppler Effect. This effect is used to determine the speed of distant stars and galaxies.

  • @theo_suharto
    @theo_suharto 4 ปีที่แล้ว +250

    0:55 the infamous Nigerian Prince strikes again...

    • @Stillow
      @Stillow 4 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      good, im not the only one that noticed that xD

    • @ivandrofly
      @ivandrofly 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      ahaha,

    • @patmclaughlin107
      @patmclaughlin107 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Theo Suharto 😂😂😂

    • @EtzEchad
      @EtzEchad 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      LOL! I didn't notice that when I watched the video. That whole list is pretty clever.

    • @PatrickMcAsey
      @PatrickMcAsey 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Well spotted! 'Hi. I am Prince Mbeki, and I am writing to offer you a large sum of money ...'

  • @ruipx
    @ruipx 5 ปีที่แล้ว +273

    Diarrhea is faster than light... in fact, i didn't even had time to turn on the light.

    • @The1stDukeDroklar
      @The1stDukeDroklar 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      OMF.. divinely funny... hats off sir!

    • @tiny_toilet
      @tiny_toilet 4 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Congrats. You somehow found a way to make a diarrhea joke that isn't funny.

    • @nadeer787
      @nadeer787 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      Nice joke bro

    • @relentlessmadman
      @relentlessmadman 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      Oh poop!

    • @harrytornow3808
      @harrytornow3808 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Soooo, it moved only through space? (for this discussion, the distance from butt to bowl)

  • @stevev4300
    @stevev4300 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    The clearest explanation yet. I was blind and now I see. After hearing you everything else just fell into place. Thank you

  • @rogwarrior1018
    @rogwarrior1018 ปีที่แล้ว

    In the beginning I thought this was going to be another video I would not understand but you explained it well.

  • @GodsMan500
    @GodsMan500 3 ปีที่แล้ว +199

    “I’m so fast that when I turn off the bedroom light, I’m in bed before the room gets dark.”
    Mohammed Ali

    • @menosproblemos6993
      @menosproblemos6993 3 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Fear of the dark

    • @petersennello813
      @petersennello813 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      His room was lined with mirrors

    • @jaswik2023
      @jaswik2023 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@petersennello813 won't change much

    • @petersennello813
      @petersennello813 3 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      @@jaswik2023 He used a light bulb with a thicker filament that slowly cools down

    • @jaswik2023
      @jaswik2023 3 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@petersennello813 sure

  • @AaronHOrtiz
    @AaronHOrtiz ปีที่แล้ว +60

    I am 55 years old and your explanation / analogy of the why we can travel faster than the speed of light was the best I have ever heard. Your caveat concerning the shortcomings of the analogy were most helpful as well.

    • @bkbj8282
      @bkbj8282 ปีที่แล้ว

      who cares. how will this impact your actual life.

    • @cayea4076
      @cayea4076 ปีที่แล้ว +15

      Some people are enriched by education and knowledge.

    • @samuraidoggy
      @samuraidoggy ปีที่แล้ว

      This is mostly just BS and old info. Its proven now that one can go way faster than light. This is just old religious talk with old science from the past.

    • @yosoy3982
      @yosoy3982 ปีที่แล้ว

      And why can aliens run faster than light? Could it not be that our conscience is 💩?

    • @rockmusicvideoreviewer896
      @rockmusicvideoreviewer896 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      what does your age got to do with anything?

  • @MrZardoz777
    @MrZardoz777 ปีที่แล้ว

    That was the first time I even thought I had any idea what "space-time" meant, amazing. Duly subscribed, thanks!

  • @gregfleming1894
    @gregfleming1894 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

    If I am moving through time (as I sit here) at the speed of light (186,000 mph), does it still make sense to express the rate at which I am moving through time as miles/hour (or more generally distance/time) ?
    If not, how should the rate at which I am moving through time be expressed?

  • @crookedpaths6612
    @crookedpaths6612 5 ปีที่แล้ว +232

    I went faster than light but nobody saw me.

    • @rollingrocky3608
      @rollingrocky3608 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Hahahahaha

    • @LTLT900
      @LTLT900 4 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      My farts are faster than light.

    • @nikolvilla2632
      @nikolvilla2632 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      that would be correct if you travelled faster than light

    • @jesuswasahermetic5871
      @jesuswasahermetic5871 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      Well, thought is faster than the speed of light but not measurable.
      So, you're correct.

    • @ksenobite
      @ksenobite 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      You is liar, you must be Trump supporter. Nobody can go faster dan de light

  • @infect6521
    @infect6521 4 ปีที่แล้ว +239

    0:55
    "Alpha Centauri is easy"
    "The New Einstein"
    "Relativity is an Illuminati plot"
    "I am a Nigerian prince"
    LOL

    • @cheesebusiness
      @cheesebusiness 4 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      The Nigerian prince is awesome. He gave me $1000000.

    • @cwdiode4521
      @cwdiode4521 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      To be fair, Alpha Centauri is only a few centuries or even decades of travel away if we can get to relativistic speeds, compared to some of the other stars out there, that’s easy.

    • @Sam-zw3vi
      @Sam-zw3vi 4 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      All geniuses in a single row😆

    • @erikb8877
      @erikb8877 3 ปีที่แล้ว

      "Epstein didnt kill himself" would have been funny

  • @ericjiang7986
    @ericjiang7986 10 หลายเดือนก่อน

    This is by far the most visualized and easy to interpret explanation of time dilation and why time cannot be exceeded and it explains the deeper reason behind. Most of the explanations I got is just mass increases and cannot be infinite. In my opinion, speed of light is like video game’s pixel loading speed

  • @TheAutoChannel
    @TheAutoChannel ปีที่แล้ว

    When I was 18, more than half a century ago, I postulated that the speed of gravity was faster than the speed of light. And this deduction made me think of how a spaceship could travel at the speed of gravity (faster than the speed of light). Here's how I deduced all this: I imagined that a laser light briefly turned on and off (pulsed), and that as the light pulses or beam moved forward it would be bent or otherwise distorted by gravity. In order for the pulses to be "captured" and distorted by gravity, the force of gravity had to move quicker than the light pulses could move. Therefore, gravity was faster than the speed of light.
    With this in mind, I imagined a round spaceship (a flying saucer) with a giant size gyroscope inside. I had a large enclosed gyroscope toy that had a crank to wind it up (instead of a pull string). I noticed that when I cranked it really fast, not only did it perform as gyroscopes do to balance themselves, but if I tossed the gyro up, it appeared to pause at the apex of the ascent - demonstrating an anti-gravitational characteristic. This seemed different than the mere tossing of a ball into the air, which I would say demonstrates no delay of any kind in switching from ascending to descending.
    I then imagined that if the gyro could spin fast enough that it would become anti-gravitational. I likened the force of gravity and anti-gravity to different magnetic fields (like and unlike fields), which would instantly (at the speed of gravity) attract or repel each other. The result would be that the flying saucer would have the ability to be repelled from, or attracted to, a celestial body such as a planet at the speed of gravity.
    From this, I had to work out how a flying saucer would be able to hover (not be instantly repelled completely away from a planet), how it could move gradually up and down, move horizontally, what could possibly power the internal gyroscope to reach its anti-gravitational speed.
    I presumed then, and still maintain now, that a nuclear-powered engine would be used, and that a computer(s) would automatically and rather instantly adjust the speed of the spinning gyro to keep the ship steady to hover, increase to ascend, or decrease to descend. Moving horizontally or diagonally would be accomplished by slight tilts in the balance of the ship which would act somewhat similar to how a sailboat can move forward against a wind by tacking. The tacking actions would be so instantly controlled by the onboard computers that the minute zigzagging movements would appear to observers as being in a straight line.
    I imagined that space travel would be possible by using the ship's anti-gravitational forces to repel from one planet or star towards another, and then ricochet from one to another - similar to how a ball in a pinball machine picks up speed as it bounces from one bumper to another.
    I imagined that any onboard computer(s) could chart the cosmic path and make adjustments at the speed of electricity (the speed of light). Moreover, I imagined that cosmic knowledge and "charts" would be used to best determine when voyages could be made in order to use closely aligned bodies to bounce from one celestial body, thereby shortening the distances, and perhaps even multiplying the speed at which the ship could travel - twice the speed of gravity, three times the speed of gravity, etc., etc. In Star Trek vocabulary, Warp 1, Warp 2, Warp 3, and so on.
    Somebody get Elon Musk on the phone!
    Any thoughts or criticisms?

  • @antifog5069
    @antifog5069 4 ปีที่แล้ว +76

    I'm glad he moves his hands with every sentence, it really makes the information clearer.

    • @ashleecadell9955
      @ashleecadell9955 4 ปีที่แล้ว +28

      it makes his hands age more slowly.

    • @nicholaslogo2003
      @nicholaslogo2003 4 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Ashlee Cadell makes them shorter too

    • @ChrisFineganTunes
      @ChrisFineganTunes 4 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      He's batting away the photons that are obscuring his vision.

    • @6421rich
      @6421rich 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      IDK still cant understand Bernie Sanders

    • @randomgrandprixrgp3440
      @randomgrandprixrgp3440 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      Trump vibes😂

  • @Sagewitchevensong
    @Sagewitchevensong 6 ปีที่แล้ว +137

    Sorry, we dont serve fundamental particles
    A Tachyon walks into a bar...

    • @charleskannal
      @charleskannal 6 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      Ha, ha! Didn't see that coming!

    • @jimmywrangles
      @jimmywrangles 5 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      That made me laugh.

    • @KutWrite
      @KutWrite 5 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Keep working on that. There is a joke there... somewhere!

    • @hieudang1789
      @hieudang1789 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      the order of the lines is backward, is it intentional, if so then it's a nice detail

    • @geraldwatts5492
      @geraldwatts5492 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@hieudang1789 That's the punchline. Do some research on tachyons!

  • @CavanLeeSears
    @CavanLeeSears ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Hi Doc, I'm a bit late in the game to ask questions, but I totally understand the Time/Space Graph. Is the reason why light has a speed limit the same reason why a cloud cannot travel faster than the wind that carries it?

    • @abhir7823
      @abhir7823 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      I guess its similar to a wave
      A wave like sound travels through air at the same speed no matter how loud the sound is... its a property of air ... not anything to do with the object making the sound
      Similarly speed of light is a property of Spacetime

  • @guysabol8743
    @guysabol8743 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    What we learned way back in 1970 was that a small portion of our SPEED was converted to mass, and even with a slight portion of mass involved SOL was then unobtainable. Since I am just a biologist, musician and such and NOT a physicist, things may have gotten further since then?

    • @philharmer198
      @philharmer198 ปีที่แล้ว

      Why was speed converted to mass ?

  • @StarboyXL9
    @StarboyXL9 4 ปีที่แล้ว +290

    "The faster you move through space, the slower you move through time"
    Ah, so that's why an hour always lasts a year when I'm exercising...

    • @pushtostart1377
      @pushtostart1377 4 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Joel Gawne it’s hypothetical though because nothing moves that fast or will ever move that fast. It’s like finding an equation of how to make it possible for humans to fly like birds. So even if you found an answer that said all we have to do is flap are arms this fast to fly. It’s something that can never be achieved. Only thing that can move at the speed of light is light so in order to move that fast you would have to be light itself. So even if you gain mass the faster you move, means nothing if moving that fast only exists hypothetically.

    • @ulquiorraschiffer1497
      @ulquiorraschiffer1497 4 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@pushtostart1377 I may be incorrect but gravity also travels at the speed of light, right?

    • @no3144u
      @no3144u 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@ulquiorraschiffer1497 To add to your incorrectness, by adding my own. I think gravity is more of a field in that it happens everywhere at the same time. It just is (preparing for the "uhm actually," onslaught). :)

    • @ulquiorraschiffer1497
      @ulquiorraschiffer1497 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@no3144u but it doesn't change the fact that it still travels at the speed of light

    • @vegitoblue8249
      @vegitoblue8249 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      The speed of light is a costant and It is also the fastes you can go, so when near a Black hole when light slows down so does time

  • @DangerClose13E
    @DangerClose13E 5 ปีที่แล้ว +22

    I think the explanation on PBS spacetime was satisfying as well. It explained the speed of light was actually the speed of causality. Its the quickest speed that anything can react to anything else in the universe!

    • @ANGRYpooCHUCKER
      @ANGRYpooCHUCKER 4 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      @ClearPolitics Information does NOT travel faster than light in quantum entanglement. It is simply that you know the particles are connected in some way, and when you measure one, then based on the exact connection they share you know immediately about the state of the other. But no actual signal traveled between the two particles.

    • @hannibal02
      @hannibal02 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@ANGRYpooCHUCKER so you're saying the entangled particles share a connection but no information goes through this connection. Seems vague to me. Is this like a worm hole?

    • @iurycabeleira7990
      @iurycabeleira7990 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@hannibal02 nah, it has to do with quantum propreties. Basically things that are really small exist almost in a mathmatical and statistical way, so when you create 2 entangled particles all that means is the math involved is statistical probability. Those 2 particles havent interacted with anything yet so they exist in both the 2 possible outcomes possible lets say they are both up and down at the same time. But when you interact with the particle you make it "decide" wich one it is, and since the one interacted resolved its probabilistic nature into a real nature the other particle has to be in arcordance to the one interacted.
      Think of it this way, we tried our best to beat the rules of causality and information travel speed but the universe finds a way to make it right without breaking its own rules. This prooved that thigs can travel faster than light, but they cant have information

    • @ANGRYpooCHUCKER
      @ANGRYpooCHUCKER 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@hannibal02 The state of entangled particles can be a specific set of things that you know beforehand, if you've entangled them properly. Thus, when you measure one particle, you can deduce instantly what the other one is based on the state of the particle you measured. So, TECHNICALLY, the "collapse" of the wavefunction for both happens instantly no matter how far apart they are, but you (nor the other particle) are not gleaning new information per se. You can't transmit any useful information this way.

  • @chadportenga7858
    @chadportenga7858 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    The travelling car analogy is perfect. So easy to visualize Space x Time when thinking of it as North & East.
    Now, what if you threw the car in reverse??? hmm....

  • @Rapecqx87
    @Rapecqx87 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Here is my question: this explanation is great, but if I am correct it is based on assumption that we move through spacetime at the speed of light.
    But why at that speed and not, for example, 0.8 x speed of light?

  • @PDizzleFoRizzle
    @PDizzleFoRizzle 4 ปีที่แล้ว +332

    Title: "Why can't you go faster than light?"
    Video: Ya just can't, trust me.

    • @tomboard1
      @tomboard1 4 ปีที่แล้ว +30

      I know practically nothing about physics and I understood his explanation.

    • @stu9000
      @stu9000 4 ปีที่แล้ว +23

      I agree. He didn’t explain why the speed of light is a limit or why it is the speed it is, but as he says I guess no-one knows.

    • @eddyecho
      @eddyecho 4 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      The reason you can't go faster is that according to the lorentz factor equation, as you approach the speed of light, the lorentz factor approaches infinity. This has many implications, including that this would mean that in order to reach the speed of light, you would need to have infinite mass.

    • @PDizzleFoRizzle
      @PDizzleFoRizzle 4 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @@eddyecho That's what I was always led to believe but correct me of I'm wrong, but didn't the guy say that is incorrect?

    • @eddyecho
      @eddyecho 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@PDizzleFoRizzle well, photons have zero mass. But i assumed you meant, yourself, and last i checked we all have mass

  • @IvanSoregashi
    @IvanSoregashi 6 ปีที่แล้ว +73

    Even if we sit in place, aren't we moving with great speed across space, along with earth, sun and milky way?

    • @GlassTopRX7
      @GlassTopRX7 5 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      Yes but time is relative. It's something that only has meaning when describing things that intersect in spacetime.

    • @hartmutjager1430
      @hartmutjager1430 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Yes we do ! :-)

    • @linxie1216
      @linxie1216 5 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Yes. So the alians are experiencing different time from you do.

    • @john-maryknight2012
      @john-maryknight2012 5 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Ye, but not in our own reference frames.

    • @anandprakash2483
      @anandprakash2483 5 ปีที่แล้ว +13

      yes and that is why you are travelling through both space and time. Otherwise you would have become old and died the moment you were born if you were travelling only through time.

  • @jpsned
    @jpsned ปีที่แล้ว

    Thank you for the explanation! Now I am going to watch your video titled "How to travel faster than light." 🙂

  • @billbrock8547
    @billbrock8547 ปีที่แล้ว

    Such a cool explanation. Is there a video about General Relativity?

  • @cecilandrews1875
    @cecilandrews1875 4 ปีที่แล้ว +116

    I saw this and laughed,it's impossible to go faster than the speed of light, you would be traveling in the dark and crash.

    • @picassoboy52
      @picassoboy52 4 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Not clever

    • @alphamale9814
      @alphamale9814 4 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      😂😂😂 Then may the force be with you my young apprentice 🤟🤙😜

    • @PatrickMcAsey
      @PatrickMcAsey 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      What a brilliant insight! This is sure to change the face of Einsteinian physics forever.

    • @JasonWW2000
      @JasonWW2000 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      Just turn on your own lights. You will see fine.

    • @aa2339
      @aa2339 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I doubt you’ll still see anything lit up ahead if you turn on your headlights, while already travelling at the speed of light.

  • @NelsonClick
    @NelsonClick 6 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    I get it now. Thanks for not going too fast. I needed a moment for it to sink in. The graph and car analogy helped tremendously.

  • @KrnelPanc
    @KrnelPanc ปีที่แล้ว

    it's possible I understand it better than I ever have from his simple example, good stuff

  • @rockabyebaby6111
    @rockabyebaby6111 ปีที่แล้ว

    sign of a good theorist .. able to convince everyone that they understand fully his theories

  • @joezagamejr.2846
    @joezagamejr.2846 5 ปีที่แล้ว +42

    This is excellent. Thank you for making this topic accessible to regular folks like me.

    • @kidwave1
      @kidwave1 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Cant even come close to the speed of light, hitting a pebble would destroy whatever vehicle youd be riding in. End of conversation.

  • @georgemanka
    @georgemanka 4 ปีที่แล้ว +21

    I like that I am travelling at the speed of light through space time, even when lying in bed watching this on my iPad.

    • @just2share
      @just2share 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      So we move the fastest (through spacetime) when we do NOT move (in space).

    • @-007-2
      @-007-2 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      but you are moving through space. i fact you are moving at quite a speed. you are on a rotating planet that is also hurling through space in an orbit around the sun. In a solar system that is also moving through space... etc

    • @nikolajkappel1506
      @nikolajkappel1506 3 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@just2share As I understood it, according to the video, you are always moving through spacetime at the same speed. You are moving the fastest through TIME when you are not moving in space. :-)

  • @willia451
    @willia451 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    There is a difference between "We move through spacetime at the speed of light" and "The velocity of an object". What he doesn't get into is every particle, like a photon of light, that has zero rest mass travels through space at the speed of light. They don't experience time. If you have mass and want to travel at high velocity and slow down time from your perspective, you have to introduce kinetic energy to gain that velocity. But it gets to the point where the energy cost to gain momentum is simply too great. You have to keep adding more and more energy for less and less velocity the closer you get to the speed of light. Until finally you can't go any faster. That's the real reason all objects that have a non-zero rest mass cannot exceed speed of light velocity. You cannot violate that energy limitation. Which is a geometrical property of spacetime itself. Hope this helped.

  • @philharmer198
    @philharmer198 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Open to anybody ; How does gravity bend space ? How does gravity grasp a hold of space ? Physically . Explain further your thinking , in detail . On how this can actually happen .

  • @unbearable9770
    @unbearable9770 6 ปีที่แล้ว +319

    You can't fool me. I've seen every episode of Star Trek. The secret is to have a Scottish engineer.

    • @nealsparkes4887
      @nealsparkes4887 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Robin Allen he wasn't even Scottish

    • @10p6
      @10p6 5 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      Or an English one, who pretends he is Scottish with maybe a little Canadian thrown in for fun. Sounds like the makings of a crappy Mel Gibson movie.

    • @roberthiggins1489
      @roberthiggins1489 5 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      I’m a Scottish engineer.. not that fast though.

    • @worthdoss8043
      @worthdoss8043 5 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      A drunken Scottish engineer.

    • @ShaunBauidhNoBas
      @ShaunBauidhNoBas 5 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      Coz e can do the same work drunk as you english can sober

  • @101franny
    @101franny 2 ปีที่แล้ว +93

    As a person who dropped out of high school to work, then in later life started to enjoy finding out about physics, I have to say, your videos are always ( mostly 😊 ) easy to understand, I just wanted to say thank you for another great explanation! Slainte 👍

    • @stauffap
      @stauffap 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Have you started do some math as well? (answering physics questions quantitatively)

    • @101franny
      @101franny 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@stauffap have you started TO write ✍️ properly yet? I can enjoy how physics work without knowing the equations, but you being a genius want to take that away from me, because of what, I’m not sure 🤔, maybe contemplate your own thoughts on that! One other thing genius, my comment was to the maker of the video, so why do you care? 🧌

    • @stauffap
      @stauffap 2 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      @@101franny
      Calm down, please. I was just curious.
      Why do you think, i want to take something away from you? Why did this simple question from me lead to so many assumptions and so much anger on your part? I don't quite get it.
      Understanding/learning the math has little to do with being a genius. You'll find that it has a lot more to do with hard work/practice. A lot of physicists work very hard. Being a genius gets you there faster, but you can't avoid the hard work. So i reject the genius comment.

    • @101franny
      @101franny 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      @@stauffap my apologies, no I can’t do mathematics quantitatively, that’s why I enjoy these videos, I can grasp the concept of how physics work on a basic level, as in why gravity affects light from distant stars, etcetera, but I work so hard for my family I don’t have time to get in to deep mathematics and equations, so having sites like these is great, especially when I trust the maker of them to be reliable. I took you for a troll, again I apologise, so many people think it is cool, or simply enjoy shooting you down because they can’t do anything else. I hardly comment much anymore because of these people, I think that’s why I was at fault. Thank you for taking the time to come back and tell me! 🙂

    • @gfreeman9843
      @gfreeman9843 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      I'm going to have to watch it again 😃😃.. good for the brain to grapple with these concepts.. even if you don't really quite get it.....

  • @donaldduck5731
    @donaldduck5731 ปีที่แล้ว

    My theory, I call “Shell Universe” theory is;
    It’s because our entire universe is a shell around a black hole in a parent universe. Nothing enters a black hole because as particles reach the event horizon they become stationary in time relative to their parent universe, forming a sphere of mass around the black hole. A formation of a black hole and creation of this shell we call the “Big Bang”. All particles to exist within this shell have a common energy level which results in either a velocity or spin. Particles with low spin we perceive as light, although light particles with marginally higher spin have fractionally lower velocity/inertia hence are diffracted to a greater angle in a glass prism. Particles with high spin and low velocity we perceive as mass and form atoms, dark matter is just the stuff in-between we can’t see.
    Might be totally wrong though, so far my only taker on my theory is Murphy my dog and even then it took a bribe of several treats.

  • @stevengoldstein114
    @stevengoldstein114 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    in order to do it, we need to do the same as we did with the speed of sound. You need to accelerate at such a rate that the mass block is evaded. A light barrier boom.

  • @fattyz1
    @fattyz1 4 ปีที่แล้ว +12

    What do you mean by we are moving through space time at light speed? I felt like you didn't explain that or I missed it, you just said it. When'd that happen? Where's the energy come from ? Big Bang? Is it because the universe is expanding at light speed already?

    • @sweatysweatson9399
      @sweatysweatson9399 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      fattyz1 yeah I also didnt get that part😕

    • @arctorusmedia
      @arctorusmedia 4 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      He also made a mistake at 4:50. He said when we're sitting in our chair watching the video, we're not moving through space. That's not true since the Earth and the solar system are moving through space, so of course we are.

    • @timsfun6653
      @timsfun6653 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@arctorusmedia Remember, movement through space alone doesn't count as movement. Only movement relative to another frame of reference counts. It would be fair to say we are moving relative to our sun or the other planets in our solar system or anything else that exists but movement through space isn't movement!

  • @erictaylor5462
    @erictaylor5462 6 ปีที่แล้ว +21

    There was a scene in the original Cosmos that disturbed me very deeply. A teenager leaves on his scooter for a relativistic tour of the countryside. When he returns, just a short time after he left, there is an ald man sitting where his brother was. Then they explained that the old man WAS the brother.
    I was about 10 at the time, and for some reason this had a powerful effect on me.
    They had the same sort of thing in a movie, but not quite as dramatic. In the movie this kid is sent out to bring his little brother home. The kids end up separated. The older kid falls and is knocked out. He come to some time later and goes home. The door is locked and he finds some other people living in his house. The police are called and they find out the kid was reported missing years before. He is reunited with his family, but his mother is much older, and his little brother is now a teenager, older than HE is.

    • @andrewmendelson7971
      @andrewmendelson7971 6 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      The second movie is “Flight of the Navigator”, from 1986, and it was the first time I heard of relativity.

    • @ObliterateTyranny
      @ObliterateTyranny 6 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Movie sounds like Disney's "Flight of the Navigator".

    • @SwarthySkinnedOne
      @SwarthySkinnedOne 6 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Eric Taylor
      That shit in the 1980s isn't original. Just a rehash of the material used in Rod Serling's original TZ stuff, and further back in the radio broadcasts of X-1 and Demension X episodes of the 1950s and further back in the Sci-fi short stories authored by obscure fantasy writers, the radio broadcasts were based on.
      So what else is new?

    • @Jeff-xy7fv
      @Jeff-xy7fv 6 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      One of my favorite movies as a child! :)

    • @sergiokorochinsky49
      @sergiokorochinsky49 6 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      SwarthySkinnedOne
      There are two Cosmos Series: the new one (deGrasse Tysson) and the original (Sagan). That is what Eric meant.
      With your logic, the only original story is Einstein's paper from 1905.

  • @dreamsolutions3037
    @dreamsolutions3037 ปีที่แล้ว

    This is exactly the explanation I was looking for

  • @headholio
    @headholio ปีที่แล้ว +7

    The question posed for this video is " why can't you go faster than light?". The answer included the idea that our movement through space time is constant, and we really don't know why that's true. Maybe I'm missing something but that doesn't explain anything in my mind.

    • @notyourtypicalwatchreview2563
      @notyourtypicalwatchreview2563 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      I’m with you.

    • @jagrandom641
      @jagrandom641 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      "You cant go faster than the speed of light because you are travelling at a speed of light" really dont answer the question though

  • @dontaskiwasbored2008
    @dontaskiwasbored2008 4 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    THIS is the kind of explanation I've been looking for. Much appreciated.

  • @SevenFootPelican
    @SevenFootPelican 3 ปีที่แล้ว +33

    Thank you so much, Dr. Lincoln. Your videos are so helpful and have helped me gain a more complete understanding in some key and fundamental concepts in physics through the consistency of your presentations. I also love how you make sure to include other videos linking to the content in the current video. It's taking me down a wonderful rabbit hole of knowledge!

  • @sastrydasigi7010
    @sastrydasigi7010 ปีที่แล้ว

    Thanks for a real cool explanation! Enjoyable video.

  • @AlaskaSkidood
    @AlaskaSkidood ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Is the hyperbolic geometry of spacetime the reason time only moves forwards - or at least the reason we can't travel backwards in time?

    • @philharmer198
      @philharmer198 ปีที่แล้ว

      Explain what " hyperbolic geometry " means , to you .
      Otherwise No . You can't distort Space . You can't shrink nor expand space . Nor time . Time its self , in and of its self , is not a true dimension. Space has three dimensions of volume . The volume of space never changes ,( No matter the energy and matter in space ) in the Universe . There is no real geometry to space nor time . Mathematically but not in reality . Space is not a thought concept . Space is real . Look around your environment . Time is a concept derived from movement . Time does not cause the movement . Time is not a real dimension . Time can not , in and of its self , create energy , hence mass . Time can not create a physical thing , of any kind .

  • @ralphholiman7401
    @ralphholiman7401 2 ปีที่แล้ว +25

    Physicists: "Faster than light travel is impossible."
    Aliens: "It is until you know how to do it."

    • @Vamp898
      @Vamp898 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @Enteraname Technical yes. But Humans in 1930 did know that it was possible. They could calculate it and observe it, they just didn't hat the technology to do it.
      There are a lot of people who say "In the past, people think we'd never fly" but that was never true. We know, for sure, that since the beginning, people where experimenting on how to make humans fly and experimenting, what was necessary to do so.
      So people always knew its possible to do so, they just didn't know how.
      That is different than the speed of light. We do know, that its impossible We can calculate and proof, its not possible.
      Lacking the technical skills to do something that works, and something that doesn't work are two different things.

    • @SwePianoholic
      @SwePianoholic ปีที่แล้ว

      @@Vamp898 downwards is generally no problem to fly....

    • @garysimpson1988
      @garysimpson1988 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      PROBLEM IS, NO ONE KNOWS HOW TO DO IT BECAUSE IT'S IMPOSSIBLE. THAT'S WHY NO ALIENS ARE ROAMING EARTH EITHER IN UFO'S OR SITTING IN THE LOCAL PUB HAVING A SMOKE AND A COLD ONE.

    • @ThomasJr
      @ThomasJr ปีที่แล้ว

      go back to school, ralph. It doesn't work like that. What makes you think humans are the underdogs among the intelligent species?

    • @ralphholiman7401
      @ralphholiman7401 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@ThomasJr Time, and our place in it. Unless you think that we won't know a whole lot more about physics in 10,000 years, than we know right now.

  • @Bootmahoy88
    @Bootmahoy88 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    You clearly have a deep understanding of this. You explained something commonly very confusing for people very simply. Bravo.

  • @tedwalford7615
    @tedwalford7615 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Excellent. And for some good visualizations of this (without the math), I suggest "We all move at the Speed of Light" by ScienceClic English, also on the Tube. And for lots MORE math, there's "Do we travel through time at the speed of light?" by Sabine Hossenfelder.

  • @miggov66
    @miggov66 ปีที่แล้ว

    Mind blown! Thanks for this video.

  • @ashekshanto8537
    @ashekshanto8537 3 ปีที่แล้ว +13

    In the year 2500, I went faster than light in an experimental machine. Turns out it made me go backwards in time and now I am stuck in the year 2021.

    • @bradleymilton1720
      @bradleymilton1720 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Sounds like you going back in time and being stuck was an unintended and unforseen occurance? So what then was the actual intended function of the 'experimental machine'? What was is supposed to do? What was it designed to do?

    • @ashekshanto8537
      @ashekshanto8537 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@bradleymilton1720 Can't say. It will create a paradox and destroy the timeline. ;)

    • @bradleymilton1720
      @bradleymilton1720 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@ashekshanto8537 It's ok, I'll keep it a secret. Just between you and me only.

    • @ashekshanto8537
      @ashekshanto8537 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@petere1060 Well Argentina will win World Cup Football 2022. I can't say more to preserve the flow of the time space continumm. :D

  • @gedstrom
    @gedstrom 6 ปีที่แล้ว +314

    All those interested in time travel, meet here last Thursday.

    • @JariSatta
      @JariSatta 6 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      I overshot by 299 792 458 m/s

    • @cakemoss4664
      @cakemoss4664 6 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      But you didn't show up

    • @timearly5226
      @timearly5226 6 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      gedstrom Lol And don't step on any bugs! (extra points for getting that)

    • @giuseppe3010
      @giuseppe3010 6 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      I went and returned 'cause I lost one of my shoes somewhere!! ... Have U seen it along the way?

    • @eddysw8549
      @eddysw8549 6 ปีที่แล้ว

      Ok np

  • @frankydman
    @frankydman 10 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I remember about 11-12 years ago there was this major story in science about how at CERN they had supposedly discovered neutrinos that move faster than light.
    I never got all the details of the story, but from what I recall, it’s turns out a wire was lose somewhere, which caused this reading, and a number of scientists became embarrassed from having supported this finding
    (Don’t know if the last part is entirely true though)

  • @michalturlik7309
    @michalturlik7309 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

    What about tachyons? (K-pax) :) - We for sure know that gravity is not affecting the speed of light but - (not my credit, just c&p) A large enough rotating black hole can be used as you say to travel backwards in time. Then you go forward in time and distance, and reach your destination before the light from your entering the ergosphere arrives at your destination. There are only a couple of caveats, and one is a real biggie. You can not go back in time before the black hole existed. (Technically before it started rotating, but that will usually be the same point in time.) You, and your spaceship would be subject to extreme gravitational gradients, measure in g's per meter. And the big one, that close to any black hole we know about that can be used this way, the radiation is also extreme. You are going to need protection from X-rays, gamma rays, and relativistic neutral particles, among other things. The accretion disk provides a lot of this radiation, but not all of it. Radio waves falling into the black hole will be blue shifted into the X-ray spectrum and beyond, and the light from any star even a few parsecs away can spoil your trip. So while physicists may run this sort of experiment in the future, if it is going to do you any good, the round trip distance traveled will be in the hundreds of light years, even if you return home the day after you left. Doesn't this violate causality? The joke among physicists a few dozen years ago was, "General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, and causality. Pick any two." By now though physicists are not willing to abandon GR or QM without a lot of currently non-exsisting proof. So is causality dead? Stephen Hawking recently published a paper about closed time-like loops (CTLLs). Crossing a CTLL may be required for causality violations, and crossing a CTLL puts you in a strange land with respect to Heisenberg Uncertainty. Since time does not pass for photons or particles traversing the loop, the amount of energy in the loop can be infinite--assuming gravity propagates at light speed. So anything can happen when crossing a CTLL, and causality is not "really" violated. (Your spaceship emerges from the CTLL in the past, but that is all right. At any point in the past, any object can appear out of the CTLL, including a random spaceship with an arbitrary crew.)
    Reference: www.physicsforums.com/threads/using-black-holes-for-ftl-travel.394542/

  • @shahanshahpolonium
    @shahanshahpolonium 3 ปีที่แล้ว +80

    0:55
    "Alpha Centauri is easy"
    "The New Einstein"
    "Relativity is an Illuminati plot"
    "I am a Nigerian prince"
    -Dr. Don Lincoln

  • @TheoneGodfather
    @TheoneGodfather 4 ปีที่แล้ว +64

    Lol, on the right he’s got a video titled “ how to travel faster than light”.

    • @MrPoster42
      @MrPoster42 4 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      The only ways we can theorize based on known science involve not going through space.
      But at least theoretically it's possible.

    • @wayneyadams
      @wayneyadams 4 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      If you watch that video you will see he is talking about exceeding the speed of light in a medium where light travels slower, not in a vacuum. It is the origin of Cerenkov radiation which causes the blue glow around nuclear rods stored in water. By the way it is blue, not green like in the movies.

    • @tomboard1
      @tomboard1 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      If you remove yourself from spacetime you can travel faster than light. FTL does not use velocity.

  • @anjalibhatia8843
    @anjalibhatia8843 ปีที่แล้ว

    Wow, you just clearly confirmed what I thought was only my vague suspicion- that we're all hurtling through space-time at the speed of light..

  • @dontransue9843
    @dontransue9843 ปีที่แล้ว

    Hi Fermi! for 18 yrs lived in Batavia right off Pine and Hart. My buddy next door was in charge of the LinAcc for 25 yrs, Duke Wahl.

  • @SJR_Media_Group
    @SJR_Media_Group 2 ปีที่แล้ว +14

    Dr. Lincoln, thank you for that easy to understand explanation about the Speed of Light. Your example of North / East and the Vector the car is traveling makes sense. By substituting Space / Time, something that was hard to comprehend became much easier. I understand this new concept and will forever forget about increasing mass relative to speed as I was taught years ago.

    • @keithw4920
      @keithw4920 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Now I am thinking, the axis representing light makes sense if it goes from 0 to C and you can have it in m/s kph etc etc. But for time, what is the scale? What is the speed of time? Is the time we are experiencing when at zero velocity the maximum possible? Also, light can go in multiple directions, can time also do that? I like that graph but now I have more questions!

    • @SJR_Media_Group
      @SJR_Media_Group 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@keithw4920 Makes you more appreciative of scientists. I need to watch again.

    • @reevus2558
      @reevus2558 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Ka-Chow!

    • @SJR_Media_Group
      @SJR_Media_Group 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@reevus2558 Thanks. There are 2 kinds of science oriented videos on TH-cam; PhD level geared to other PhD's. Then there are programs like this, he uses everyday words where possible to explain very technical and theoretical Physics.
      I was (still am) a Math, Physics, Chemistry, Space, and Science geek. Sometimes even his 'simple' examples push me harder to understand. I got straight A's in High School and College. I'm certainly not dumb. But compared to him, I am but a student still committed to life long learning.

    • @iandonkin3759
      @iandonkin3759 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@keithw4920 The axis does not represent light. The vertical is time, and horizontal is space. The scale on each axis is the speed of light. The space axis ignores the three dimensions of space, they are all rolled up into a single dimension of space to simplify things. We travel through spacetime, the combination of space and time at one speed, c. If we travel faster through space, we have to trade off an equal speed through time and vice versa. So if we travel through space at the speed of light, our speed through time is zero, and again vice versa. So our speed through spacetime, the combination of space AND time is always c. Hope that helps.

  • @sukuna8731
    @sukuna8731 3 ปีที่แล้ว +19

    Sometimes i think that my mom's sandal is faster than light you proved me wrong thank you

    • @tomastemprano
      @tomastemprano 3 ปีที่แล้ว

      Sandal speeds are determined by the chancla bosson. It can go FTL.

  • @spartan1857
    @spartan1857 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Thanks. If v > c then the Lorentz factor is complex. Does this possibly mean that if we could jump to a velcoity v >c (maybe not through typical acceleration which would never exceed c), we could move out of space time and maybe into something inbetween it. I guess my thought was that this might be similar to the >c jumps in star treck. Based on travel between space-time, we could emerge at other points in space-time with little or no difference in the actual change in time within space time. So a complex time might mean that time exists in more than one dimension, or that there is a complex addition to space-time.
    Is it possible that sub-atomic particles might be able to make these jumps? So changing position without observation?

    • @TheFrewah
      @TheFrewah 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      The laws of physics spread at the speed of light but empty space was created faster than c because nothing CAN move faster than light. Maybe a particle from a parallell universe leaked to the part of universe where there were yet no laws? Itcould move faster than c andcan never move slower than c

  • @lirmchip
    @lirmchip 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    It's very possible that there are things that travel faster than light that we are not designed to perceive, similar to the wavelengths of light that our eyes can't see or sound beyond our capacity to hear,

  • @sweetwilliam49
    @sweetwilliam49 6 ปีที่แล้ว +192

    You can’t go faster than light because you can’t see where you’re going. Then you’ll hit something and your insurance will go up!

    • @danpesta4220
      @danpesta4220 6 ปีที่แล้ว

      Mt man 1949 this comment made me laugh out loud. Thanks!

    • @Tony07UK
      @Tony07UK 6 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      That comment is more easily understood than the dude waffling in this poorly explained video.

    • @prathameshsahasrabuddhe1182
      @prathameshsahasrabuddhe1182 6 ปีที่แล้ว

      Mt man 1949 hehehe

    • @danceswithcritters
      @danceswithcritters 6 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      and you get a speeding ticket. it's against the 'law'.

    • @patrickreilly7256
      @patrickreilly7256 6 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Mt man 1949 :
      Anything you might hit must go slower then light...All matter at light speed is light... Anything faster is the darkness...!!!

  • @cptechno
    @cptechno 4 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    This is one of the most interesting shows you've done! I like it. Hermann Minkowski's intuition was so insightful and so very important to put Einstein's theory of relativity in an geometric context.
    I've viewed this show twice before and several months later I viewed it a third time. On the third visualization I got an idea.
    I would like to offer an answer to your question: "Why everything in our universe is travelling through space-time at at the speed of light?"
    I offer the answer: "It's a quantic property of our space-time". This is reminescent of atoms absorbing energy at specific energy levels.
    This my speculation here. If we think of our space-time as a bubble in a super-space containing our space-time universe and possibly many other things that are hard for us to imagine. The only way to enter our space-time bubble is to have a specific level of energy (like quantic behavior of atoms). Conversly, one way to exit our space-time is to diverge from that level of energy. Black-wholes may be one example of diverging from our space-time universe's level of energy. I am suggesting that whatever is in black-wholes is outside of our space-time universe because what's inside diverges from our universal level of energy to travel through space-time at speed c.

    • @ChethanSrinivas
      @ChethanSrinivas 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      Hey I thought it was an assertion that we move through space time at a constant Speed, the speed of light. I was not able to make out what he meant.

  • @chrisjohnson2460
    @chrisjohnson2460 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Because of the related time dilation that occurs as matter and energy approach the speed of light, the forces under which matter and energy operate could no longer have enough of an effect, resulting in matter and energy literally coming apart at the seams, which is why nothing can exceed the speed of light.

  • @burdettehoeppner1062
    @burdettehoeppner1062 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I liked this video explanation of space time, it makes sense now.

  • @truthseeker7041
    @truthseeker7041 3 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    Thank you sir. Very clear and wonderful way of explaining.
    Science is amazing.

  • @saimon174666
    @saimon174666 6 ปีที่แล้ว +48

    The email subjects were extremely funny

    • @kent_hdd
      @kent_hdd 6 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      "I am a Nigerian prince !"

    • @AliVeli-gr4fb
      @AliVeli-gr4fb 6 ปีที่แล้ว

      I am a Nigerian Prince :D

    • @wonderkeyz
      @wonderkeyz 6 ปีที่แล้ว

      I am a Nigerian Prince ;)

    • @winedragon
      @winedragon 6 ปีที่แล้ว

      And all 1-3 min apart

  • @MatthewHill
    @MatthewHill ปีที่แล้ว +9

    I've never heard it explained this way before. Very thought-provoking.

  • @rodgerolds2642
    @rodgerolds2642 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

    How to measure the one way speed of light. Use two clocks that are synchronized by an external tick. Use a cosmic pulsar to synchronize the two clocks. Put the clocks together and synch-up with the pulsar pulses. Move the second clock some distance away(D). During the movement, the two clocks stay synched up via the pulses of the pulsar. This negates any relativistic induced error caused by the movement of the second clock. Fire a light pulse that will be detected by the second clock. Bring the second clock back to get the difference in time(T). The two clocks are still synchronized by the pulsar, and have remained synchronized during the entire experiment. C = D/T