imagine this plz.

instead of jet engines we would use high powered flash ligths. the speed of ligth would go backwards and is there was a way to capture that ligth beam so the ship would go frontward in theory the spacecraft should go at the speed of ligth.

Like they could place a remote controled miror type glass perpendicular to the beam.
think of jet engine but with ligth instead of jet...

i know the power amount to keep those ligths on would be important but thats not he thing.
could we make an engine that would use speed to trust forward?

Easy! The answer is no! Light cannot propell you. You can capture light and use the energy to power something, but thats not very efficient.

Calculators seem to enjoy the power of light. And solar panels. And a new generator they are planning to build in Australia.

what could make it propel something?
somehing refelective that doesnt allow it to pass and causes it to bounce back...

Reaction mass would be needed, by superheating water molecules you could get a respectable amount of thrust.

negative energy no feul no propellant.
approach the speed of light=time gets slower, you get younger, you move into the future.
the speed of light=time stops
faster than the speed of light= you move back in time (Superman 3).
off topic, but hey, just imagine being superman for a day. You could live the same day over and over again for eternity (Nietzche-the eternal recurrence theory).

since light has no mass, it cannot be used like how you described. if it had a mass (apart from not being able to go at light speed, so assume just under) it would be an excellent pushing thing.

is there not a way we could give light particles a mass?

so what are u saying? we put 2 touches on the end of a wing and go at light speed? hmmmmmmmm

The biggest problem with developing a superluminal drive is that most of physics is now stuck on Special Relativity. If the speed of light is the one absolute, then obviously we should try to manipulative other influences instead, such as Time, causality, gravity, mass, inertia, something.

If time stopped at the speed of light, would light not be able to travel from one place to another instantaneously?

Light doesn't travel instantaneously. Ghetto example; Light from the sun takes 8 minutes to get to Earth, so the light we are receiving now is light from the sun 8 minutes ago.

light has no measurable mass that we know of, but it does have momentum and could be used to propell a ship. haven't any of you heard of solar sails? it's not the same as emitting light to propel yourself, instead it captures light in a huge lightweight sail and the ship is pushed forward. the amount of force exerted by light is extremely weak, acceleration would be slower then the ion drives used in some recent space probes, even if the mass to surface area ratio was very low.

quote:

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Originally posted by NGNeer:
The biggest problem with developing a superluminal drive is that most of physics is now stuck on Special Relativity. If the speed of light is the one absolute, then obviously we should try to manipulative other influences instead, such as Time, causality, gravity, mass, inertia, something.

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Time, causality, gravity, mass, and inertia are all things that are currently being played with by mathemiticans, physicists, theorists, and experimenters. Playing with photons and optics is nothing new.

well we would have to build flying sail ships because propulsion is achived by basicaly throwing a particle out of the jet engine but the same force that is put on the particle is put back on the jet engine

same as when your throwing a rock the force you put on the rock is put back on your hand

my 6th grade science teacher asked how a space ship can fly in space even though there is no air he made it an extra credit assignment so I asked my dad and thats what he told me