[vannrox]

This was written in the days when I was a young Aerospace Engineering student. Quite a bit has happened since this article was written. Namely Jimmy Carter and his change of direction for NASA. Anyone remember the crash of the SKY-LAB? Then Ronald Regan who wanted to develop NASP, the space station, and the SDI....only to Bill Clinton and Al Gore divert all the funds for the Children...

There are questions whether "c" is a constant at all...There are questions in the fundamental action and behavoir and assumtptions of matter, and all of this has resulted the having subatomic particles travel faster than the speed of light.

Perhaps some day we might be able to travel faster than light. It certainly would be cool. But I doublt that it will be in my lifetime.

[bwteim]

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle in which travel occurs at the speed of thought. That'd be fast.

[SamAdams76]

I have arrived from 150 years in the future to tell you that the light barrier will eventually be broken. However, we still haven't invented a reliable battery. That's why I'm still stuck in 2005. My time machine has a dead nyglohyphelium cell and they won't be invented until 2057.

Until then, we have seventeen more bad Coldplay albums to suffer through.

[Michael Goldsberry]

There was a young lady named Bright,
who traveled much faster that light....
she started one day,
in a Relative way,
and returned on the previous night.

[EdHallick]

The speed of light has been broken many times. Look how fast Democrats went from complaining "GW did nothing to prevent 911" at the 911 hearings, to complaining "GW is trying to prevent 911" at Gitmo.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Mel Zisfein, deputy director of the national Air and Space Museum, and an aerosynamicist amoung other things, has noted a similarity between the way most people today regard "C," the speed of light, and the way many people a generation or so ago regarded "a", the speed of sound.

Proof positive that travel at the speed of light is not only possible, but inevitable.

[Larry Lucido]

"What is the speed of dark?"

"I put instant coffee into my microwave oven and almost went back in time."

- Stephen Wright

[EdHallick]

Actually something does travel at the speed of light. Photons. We need to build a ship entirely of photons, then we could have photon torpedoes and destroy the Kingons.

[rkhampton]

has noted a similarity between the way most people today regard "C," the speed of light, and the way many people a generation or so ago regarded "a", the speed of sound.

I pretty much stopped taking this article serious when I reached the about statement.

[Moonman62]

c is actually a ratio between two other constants, one for electricity and one for magnetism.

[tophat9000]

They notice the similarity in form to the earlier aerodynamic pressure equation and its curve . Some people say we;ll never move faster than "c:, the speed of light. As we increase speed from zero, the mass of any body will rise ever faster and tend toward infinity, as we approach the speed of light, which is a barrier we can't pass.

Yes alot have...the "so called" speed of light barrier will fall and the idea how will most likely come from someone to "dumb" to know it can't be done

[isom35]

not even Scotty can change the laws of physics...

[RightWhale]

Cherenkov radiation ought to bring the Einstein/Maxwell speed into question. Then there is Goedel. In our equations we like to put t as if that has something to do with reality. Light is a phenom of electromagnetic fields. There are other kinds of fields. The speed of photons may have nothing to do with reality, just our intuitions.

[microgood]

There are questions whether "c" is a constant at all.

I put my money on Einstein. They are still proving his theories true many years after his death. It may have not been a constant during the early stages of development of the universe, but in the fairly steady state we are in I think it is fairly constant, maybe changing a bit every billion years or so.

[GSlob]

What would be the speed of sound in the rocket engine exhaust gases at the temperatures and pressures obtaining in rocket engine exhaust? (or at t°, p conditions in the bow shock wave of a flying bullet?- and how would it compare with the velocity of these gases or of the bullet?).

[Kokojmudd]

What about the Speed of Darkness which was discovered by the secret scientist himself Momus A. Morgus, Esq. ?

[Cloud William]

Courtesy of the late B. Kliban:

[fish hawk]

Excuse me but the speed of light is not a barrier. We don't know of anything that can even come close with our technology. (how can a gate be a barrier if you are a thousand miles down the road? )Just a thought.

[Kirkwood]

Think of all the things we could fix if we could go back in time...

[maestro]

?.....Will the speed of light always be a barrier?

LOL......the speed of creator 'light' has NEVER been a barrier to Creator-God 'Jesus of Nazareth'.....!

He 'is' the 'light' and much more!

Absolutes count!

/finite relativity

:-)

[Paul_Denton]

Maybe not through "brute force," But I am sure one day we will have technology to get around that. Wormholes, quantum tunneling, etc.