And why is that? (As long as we are on the subject...)

 

"The existence of a limit to the speed of accelerated electrons was shown in a 1964 experiment of W. Bertozzi. He accerated electrons to various measured speeds and--by an independent method--also measured their kinetic energies. He found that as the force on a very fast electron is increased, the electron's measured kinetic energy increases toward very large values but its speed does not increase appreciably. Electrons have been accelerated to at least 0.999 999 999 95 times the speed of light but--close though it may be--that speed is still less than the ultimate speed c=299 792 458 m/s (exact speed of light)."

This means that as you add force to an electron, or any other object, that the force needed to increase the speed increases exponentially to a finite value (the speed of light). So you can induce as much force as you want but it will never reach the finite value. Hope that answers your question.

dan

 

Another way to explain it, aka relativistic mass.

As something approaches the speed of light, it's mass increases and therefore the energy to acccelerate it increases with both approaching infinity. Even a Top Fuel engine isn't that strong.

I'm too lazy to copy the equations, but here's a link.
Thanks to A.E's Special Theory...



Relativistic Energy and Mass

 

The use of helium or other gases for that matter have little to do with the weight aspect of said gas when used to inflate automotive tires. What is trying to be accoplished? Consistancy with temperature change, as the tire heats up the contact patch stays close to its cold pressure size and makes pressure tuning less of a hassle. Pure gases are more predictable than mixed gases and consistancy is a good ingrediant to have when racing.
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The speed of light is the only true physical universal constant.
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Untill recently this was thought to be true. Some theroetical scientist beleive that in deep space the SOL is not constant. I've read in Discovery magizine that in a lab someone has actually made this happen. I cant remember the whole article but they were able to speed up photons in a controlled cell to the point that they would arrive before the left. Thats warped


Kevin

 

[QUOTE I cant remember the whole article but they were able to speed up photons in a controlled cell to the point that they would arrive before the left.
Kevin [/B][/QUOTE]

sometimes i could sure use that to get to work on time!!!lol

 

Yes you will see his headlights 100%, you're forgetting about time dilation.

The speed of light is a universal constant, a light beam will slow down when it travels through a medium but the photons that actually make up that beam will ALWAYS be travelling at the speed of light. The photons simply change direction when they hit the atoms but they will never actually slow down. When a photon drops below the speed of light it ceases to exist.

 

having raced for a number of years.........the only reason people use nitrogen in tires....is because it dosent expand..(temperature dosent matter).i:e...there consitent trying to dial a car in,and never change on race day...........have fun.da slugg..

 

one last tid-bit.........the only way to slow down the speed of light is with a term called ...interferometry.m-xmas

 

That's not correct. Even nitrogen is bound to the laws of PV=nRT. It will change pressure less over a given range of temperatures than wet air (what's in most peoples' tires) so it can be more consistent but it certainly isn't immune to expansion as it heats up.

 

It is a pretty interesting topic when you stop and think about, its the basic thought that the photons that carry light energy have no mass and once not traveling the speed of light do not exist anymore, but do you all think that light is a particle or a wave.
I dont remember the experiment but it was somebodys double slit experiment and he shot a particle of energy through the device and it was detected going through both slits when it is only 1 particle, it gets into the whole parallel dimension thing thats kinda cool

later,
-john

 

Light is a wave, just a very small one at that, the frequency is so small you hardly can tell. This is proved by the double slit experiment which causes diffraction, you end up with a number of bright fringes which showes that the light was bending around the corners of the slits then causing maxium and minimum spots.

double slit

I(omega)=Im*((cos^2)(beta))*(sin(alpha)/alpha)^2


dan

 

Thanks for the interesting read guys.

 

any transparent material will slow light... some even to the speed of 3 or 4 inches and hour! (Bose-Einstien condensate)... I belive the reference quote should say: Now as far as it's validity goes, yeah, it's impossible to prove a negative (that it doesn't change in any other regions of space)... as there are "opinions" that EMR's speed in a vacume (as well as many other physical aspects) may vary significantly from region to region to the point that the entire LAWS OF PHYSICS are affected... but it's only a hypothosis that's been thrown around for a decade or so (since my last advanced physics course at least). Don't know much about it, except that some guy with a NASA grant had a neet looking computer chart/map of the universe and it was closely tied into an attempt to quantify and account for all the missing "dark matter" in the universe.

As for the article Kevin read, well... yeah, they'er talking about transmitting information beyond the speed of light... but I belive the speed of light itself really isn't affected at all by that experiment. I belive the intent is to show a property quantam physics which really is beyond any real application right now, but the goal is to make massive parrallel computers that can process anything instantly... and transmit the answer billions of miles just as fast. The only catch is that I "think" it's about "replicating" and "predicting" a particle's state using quantam physics. I dunno... everytime you turn around the "super-ultra-theory" changes. I wish someone would find the damn unified theory and be done with it.

 

Yes... and it also acts like a particle as well. I've always had my own theory on why, but it pretty-much comes down to an understanding that mass is a result of energy at speed. If anyone could explain it they'd probably give him a Nobal prize... Einstein tried it this way: E=mc^2.
But he never got a Nobel prize for it.

The concept of "Mass" is really more questionable than Energy, so.... if you notice that if you rearrage it to make energy a fundamental, and MASS as the quotient you get:
Mass = Energy / (EMR in a vacume)^2

the c^2 being a constant (hopefully ), you're stuck with mass varying directly with energy. More energy, more mass... so what is energy? and so on... and so on... etc...

 

true dat.

PV=nRT is a simplification of gas expansion refered to as the "Ideal" Gas Law. For specific gases, there are other formulas that do a better job of matching experimental results. Most of them get increasingly more complex with small improvements in accuracy. Most try to incorporate differences in molecule interactions (like dipole moments / Van der Walls forces).

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On a side note, CO2 is an interesting solution for 4x4 / off-roaders who air-up their monstrous tires after rock-crawling at 5psi... although it's not usually available in a "dry" supply and because of it's low-pressure condensation point tends to be difficult to carry in bulk (N2 cylinders just need to run higher pressures...~4500psi while CO2 is limited to ~1000psi... 4.5 times less gas in the same tank volume )


17" x 11" ZR1 cast aluminum rim: 21 lbs
315/35ZR17 Goodyear Eagle F1: 30 lbs

Anyone care to guess the weight of gases it'd take to hit 35psi?