Is it possible to travel faster than light?
They say it’s impossible, but is it really so? According to Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, nothing moves faster than light because as matter approaches that speed, its mass tends to infinity and requires an infinite amount of energy. In other words, this is a universal speed limit, a constant moving at a speed of 300,000 km per second. According to Space.com, this limitation applies to the entire universe. Yet there is a catch to the claim that nothing can travel faster than light, since it would require adding the tagline “in a vacuum.”
Space vacuum This is usually understood as the absence of matter and energy., but even in these circumstances vacuum energy exists. If this speed were reduced, it is possible that light could travel faster than the standard 300,000 km/s, although this cannot be demonstrated due to technological limitations. Although light travels at its fastest speed in a vacuum, it can slow down if it passes through absorbing materials such as water or glass.
Light slows down when it passes through some materials.
Light bends when it comes into contact with particles, so the speed decreases. For example, in water it moves at a speed of 225,000 km/s. and in glass at a speed of 200,000 km/s. According to PBS NOVA, when light passes through diamonds, the speed is reduced by almost half, to about 124,000 km/s. What happens the moment light comes into contact with the Earth’s atmosphere? The truth is that its speed is similar to that achieved in a vacuum, since it only decreases by about 10,000 km/s.
Russian scientist Pavel Alekseevich Cherenkov, winner of the 1958 Nobel Prize, demonstrated that Cherenkov radiation (the bluish shock wave seen in nuclear power plants) In water he can move faster than light. To return to the above, as the speed of light decreases in this environment, it opens up the possibility that light can be surpassed outside of a vacuum.