Speed is an important aid for mankind to explore the earth and explore the universe. In ancient times, people had very limited understanding of the world because they lacked fast means of transportation and did not have the advantage of speed.
As mankind enters the age of science and technology, with the help of science and technology, mankind has invented advanced means of transportation, and only then has the hope of exploring the earth. Under the advantage of speed, the earth has changed from the original vastness to a limited global village, realizing the dream of the ancients.
Traveling all over the earth is nothing for modern humans at all. As long as you are willing, you can travel to every corner of the earth in a short time by flying. As human beings have entered the age of technology, their eyes are no longer limited to the small earth, but the universe.
In front of the universe, the earth is as small as dust, and exploring the vast universe has become a new goal of mankind. To explore the universe, natural needs also require the advantage of speed. The speed that we are proud of on Earth is not even the speed of a turtle in front of the universe.
Of course, objects traveling in the universe will basically not be affected by resistance. This is because the density of matter in the universe is very small. There are as many as 10^50 tons in the observable universe with a radius of 46.5 billion light-years. Of the substance. But converted to density, it is only 9.9×10^-27 kg/m3, which means that there are only 5.9 protons in 1 m3 of space. In other words, the space is almost in a vacuum state.
Shuttle in a universe that is basically close to a vacuum state, and the resistance of the object when it moves is basically zero. It is precisely because the resistance in the universe is basically zero that the earth can revolve around the sun for 4.6 billion years. If there is obvious resistance, then the earth has already run out of energy and fell into space. The celestial bodies in the universe can always maintain a stable state of motion, which is closely related to the universe’s basically vacuum environment.
Since the universe is in a vacuum state, according to Newton’s law, as long as an acceleration is given to an object, in theory it can continue to accelerate. So a friend had such a question: If the rocket can keep accelerating in the universe, can it surpass the speed of light?
Before Einstein’s theory of relativity was not proposed, according to Newton’s first law, people would naturally think that a rocket can accelerate in a vacuum environment. As long as it continues, it can reach the speed of light or surpass the speed of light.
However, with the introduction of the special theory of relativity, there is a preliminary conclusion about the speed issue, that is, speed cannot be accelerated indefinitely. It has a limit that is the speed of light. The speed of a mass object can only be infinitely close to the speed of light, and cannot be reached or surpassed. Why can’t the speed of an object exceed the speed of light?
Newton’s second law of motion states that as long as the rocket has power and the acceleration is always greater than 0, the rocket can continue to accelerate. From this point of view, it is only a matter of time before the rocket accelerates to faster than the speed of light. However, the special theory of relativity shows that the motion of an object is directly proportional to its mass. As the speed of the object’s motion increases, its mass will continue to increase.
When the speed accelerates to infinitely close to the speed of light, the mass of the object’s motion will also increase to infinity, which means that the animal of the object will also become infinite, and the energy required is also infinite. There is no infinite energy in the universe that allows objects to reach the speed of light, let alone surpass the speed of light. Therefore, an object with a static mass cannot even reach the speed of light.
Is the description in the theory of relativity that the speed of an object cannot reach the speed of light correct? Scientists have verified this through a large number of experiments, and the results prove that the speed of the object cannot reach the speed of light. Scientists used a particle accelerator to verify this, and obtained experimental results by accelerating electrons.
It is necessary to know that the mass of an electron is only 9.1×10^-28 grams. According to classical physics, the energy required to accelerate an electron to the speed of light is only 4×10^-14 Joules, which is a very small energy. It can be done easily. However, in reality, scientists have accelerated electrons through the most powerful hadron collider in the world, but no matter how hard they work, the speed of electrons can only reach 99.999999%, which is an infinitely close to the speed of light.
Through experiments, we can see that the speed of an object cannot reach the speed of light, let alone surpass the speed of light. Therefore, no matter how the rocket accelerates in space, its speed will never reach the speed of light. Seeing the results here, I believe many of my friends will feel frustrated. We must know that the vast universe is beyond our imagination, and the observable universe alone is 93 billion light-years away.
If the speed of the object cannot exceed the speed of light, it means that human beings will always be trapped within a limited range of the starry sky. Not to mention exploring the entire starry sky, it is just a small galaxy, and we cannot go out. Without the advantage of speed, how can human beings talk about exploring the universe, and how can they realize their dreams?
So can’t the speed surpass the speed of light? Of course not. The speed of objects cannot even reach the speed of light. However, in the mysterious universe, there are many phenomena of super-light speed. The most conspicuous is the expansion of the universe, and its speed far exceeds the speed of light.
So Einstein put forward the great theory of general relativity. In general relativity, the speed is not limited by the speed of light. As long as the conditions can be reached, the speed can increase indefinitely. So does the speed in the general theory of relativity contradict the speed in the special theory of relativity? In fact, they do not conflict with each other. The speed in the special theory of relativity refers to the moving speed of an object.
The speed in general relativity refers to the degree of distortion of space. According to general relativity, our universe is not a hard and flat space. We can imagine the universe as a soft balloon. Massive objects will bend the space. , So that the two points in the space will continue to approach, and the distance will be greatly shortened.
When an object falls into such a curved space, it can quickly reach another space point from one point in space, thereby achieving super-light speed flight. Scientists call this flight mode curvature navigation, or space jump, which is a way to achieve super-light speed flight.
The warp speed spacecraft can make the space in front of it shrink and the space behind it can expand. Therefore, the warp speed spacecraft can move at high speed in such a warp bubble, even faster than the speed of light. This super-light speed does not violate the special theory of relativity, because the speed of the spacecraft itself does not reach the speed of light, and the space around the spacecraft is moving faster than the speed of light.
There is another way to achieve super-light fast flight, and that is through wormholes. Wormhole is a conjecture theory proposed based on the theory of relativity. This is a channel formed after the universe is distorted to the extreme. Through the wormhole, we can quickly reach the other side of the universe. It is the most important way for humans to explore the universe in the future.
Of course, the wormhole is still only a theoretical conjecture. Whether it exists in reality or not requires the continuous efforts of scientists to explore. If we can discover the existence of wormholes in the universe, then it will be possible for mankind to realize the dream of turning the universe into a cosmic village in the future.