Why can't we travel faster than light?
According to Einstein nothing can travel faster than light. But why? What would actually happen if you tried? Would you need infinite energy? If we can't go faster than light, does that mean we'll never reach other star systems? Are there any theoretical workarounds like wormholes or warp drives?
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3 Answers
This is actually a much deeper question than it appears on the surface. The simple answer most textbooks give is technically correct but misses a lot of nuance. Let me try to explain it in a way that captures the full picture.
Be careful about 'common sense' here — a lot of science is counterintuitive. The whole point of doing experiments is that the universe often doesn't work the way our gut tells us it should. The Earth feels flat and stationary, after all.
Carl Sagan's 'Cosmos' explains stuff like this better than any textbook. If you can find the old TV series or the book, watch or read it. He had a gift for making the universe make sense without dumbing it down. Highly recommend.
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