Physicists: Faster-Than-Light Travel Might Be Possible

FoxNews ^ | August 13, 2008 | Jeremy Hsu

[LomanBill]

[Certainly mass effects the fabric of space, but these effects wouldn't come into play here with such low mass objects. There isn't anywhere near the amount of mass here to bend the light beam's path.]

 

But as the velocity of a body increases, its mass increases and approaches infinity as V approaches C.  

 

Wouldn't mass become sufficient to bend light as V approached C?

 

 

[ETL]

Wouldn't mass become sufficient to bend light as V approached C?

That's a very interesting question, because if V does get to a substantial portion of light speed, any object with mass aboard the moving frame (as seen by an outside stationary observer), would increase dramatically. I believe that is the reason why objects cannot achieve light speed. Because AT light speed (mathematically/theoretically), mass is infinite. And it would require an infinite amount of energy to get an object up to light speed, so therefore C is impossible.

But getting back to your question: [pp] would the dramatic increase in mass (at high enough V), create a similarly dramatic increase in the gravitational field of the objects in the moving frame, as seen from the perspective of the outside stationary frame/observer, and actually become great enough to bend the light beam?

"Answer": Beats me! Seriously, my guess would be that it would take a near impossibly large amount of energy to get the light clock up to such speeds where mass increase will impart a gravitational field strong enough to bend light. In any event, a great question!