• Question: Is it true that if you travel at the speed of light time has stopped?

    Asked by 11cjohnson123 to Callum, Gina, Katie, Michelle, Sam on 16 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Katie Howe

      Katie Howe answered on 16 Nov 2012:

      If you were to you travel at the speed of light everything around you would be frozen in time. This is because the faster someone/something moves then the slower time passes for them, until you get to the speed of light when time stops.

      But it is impossible to travel at the speed of light because you would need so much energy to go that fast. This really makes my mind boggle!! They explained it really well on Dara o’briains science club the other night. You can check it out on i player here:

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01p014h/Dara_O_Briains_Science_Club_Episode_2/

    • Photo: Sam Godfrey

      Sam Godfrey answered on 16 Nov 2012:

      Not quite related to your question but did you know that light can be slowed right down using something called a Bose-Einstein condensate. They have slowed light down to 15mph, then slowed it to a stop before releasing it. Found this video on youtube about it.

    • Photo: Callum Johnston

      Callum Johnston answered on 16 Nov 2012:

      Like Katie said I don’t think anything will ever be able to travel at the speed of light but even if it did time would only stop for that one thing. Every one else would still be going along at our normal speed and so time would remain the same for us.

      All these physics questions are making my brain hurt!

    • Photo: Michelle Linterman

      Michelle Linterman answered on 16 Nov 2012:

      It depends on where your watch is. If you were travelling near the speed of light your watch would work just fine, but it would look watches on people who were standing still had slowed down. That’s how you can have the thing where one twin goes off on a trip in a spaceship and when she comes back she’s a wee bit older than her brother.

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