Can anything travel faster than light? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Chuck Nice explain what a tachyon is and how it could travel faster than the speed of light.
What happens when you go faster than the speed of light? What are different ways to move faster than light? We break down a tachyon’s relationship to time, Cherenkov radiation, and how the early universe expanded faster than the speed of light.
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Science meets pop culture on StarTalk! Astrophysicist & Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson, his comic co-hosts, guest celebrities & scientists discuss astronomy, physics, and everything else about life in the universe. Keep Looking Up!
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00:00 - Breaking the Speed of Light
3:03 - How Tachyons Work
4:42 - Light Traveling Through Different Media & Cherenkov Radiation
9:45 - A Sonic Boom For Light
Had you ever heard of a Tachyon?
Yes.
Yes.
They've been mentioned in like dozens of Star Trek episodes.
Yes it's that additive in Chevron gas 😅
Nope, but I have a questsion. If the universe is so big that it takes millions of lightyears to travel through it... there must be someting faster than that. I mean no way that's the fastest. It would take almost forever to cross the universe in that case..Right? Not even speaking about the multiverse theory.
There was a young lady called Bright, She could travel much faster than light. She set off one day, in a relative way, and came back on the previous night. Yeah I just had to give this limerick here 🙂 Love the channel
Once was a varlet named Mark. Flew faster than a crow can bark. He passed Lady Bright, in the black of the night, Speed of light is slower than dark.
Bro your poem explains why people suddenly disappear if they try going faster than the speed of light. They didn't Disaapeared, they just went a moment earlier in time dimension.
Beautiful
@@adamsheaffer As I just found out, this limmerick was written by A. H. Reginald Buller, professor of botany in Winnipeg, and first printed in humor magazine Punch in 1923.
I Love that!! This is awesome!! Dig it!! Thank you!!
I moved faster than light coming to watch this video 😏
Same 😂
Good one!
I was watching Cash Jordan reporting that NYC has up to 90,000 amazon packages a day stolen faster than the speed of light. 🤣😂... and then StarTalk popped up and I clicked in faster than S.O.L.
Lol
Would’ve been cool if this comment was from before the video released.
This channel is the only hope I have for humanity. Daily, I face humanity’s mess, separately from my own mess of experiences and emotions, which make it hard to keep my passion for science in focus. Also, there is something about looking at the stars that brings me closer to myself. Humanity oftentimes just feels like some distraction that pushes me further away from understanding myself and the universe. I am grateful for this show and look forward to every episode. Thank you guys for what you do.
Amen, brother or sister!!!
I agree!
Keep searching
i feel you brother, keep looking up :)
The new sound effects are infantile…the fact they feel the need to start doing this because (presumptively) people’s attention spans are so bad makes my hope for humanity diminish.
"actual sound of the big bang" cracked me up
My family and I will be coming to see you in Birmingham. Finally get to hear a talk in person. Can't wait for Feb. 27th to get here
Ver jealous I am 🙃...but bravo 🫡
its worth it! hes awesome!@@hamster1zombie170
Can we just stop for a moment to think about how COOL "Tachyon Chariot" sounds? I want to ride in one of those!!
5:29 as I understand it, light traveling in water (or any other medium) doesn't mean the photons are traveling any slower than the speed of light (299,797 km/sec). What's happening is that the photons are running into water molecules making the light wave appear to be going slower.
Edit: this is completely wrong I was about to comment this, and you're completely right. The light still travels at light speed it just doesn't take a direct route because the atoms are in the way
@@gwynm8506I can see how this might seem to be the case geometrically, I can also see how one might think this quantum mechanically if you consider the ultimate path (speed) of a wave as the summation of probabilities of all possible paths around an object, i.e. the more obstacles in the way, the less direct the path. But this is not the case.
If thats not the case, then why does light appear to go slower through those mediums?@@TB-ni4ur
@@gwynm8506why or how photons avoid water. molecules. Does photons deflect off of water molecules upon impact and end up taking a longer path.
@@gwynm8506 then you'd expect it to appear cloudy, since the light would be scattered in all directions; the light (itself part of the electromagnetic field) is just slowed down by the electromagnetic field caused by the atoms, but still takes a direct path
Happy black History month Neil and Chuck.. best dang channel on KZhead in my opinion.. this is the way
I've often wondered if we can finally harmonize general relativity and quantum mechanics so that we can permeate the speed of light in a vacuum as tardyons (particles vc) because of their uncertainty and do so in a controlled and macroscopic manner as opposed to just a few particles at a time.
I've always wondered; what if matter is traveling backwards in time from the end to the beginning... it would look like a solid mass if the temporal dimension was also special. Moving towards its end at the start of the universe.
Hmmm, a Tachyon wormhole you can just step through... that'd be a cool thing to see, you can already experience it in VR and it's a very cool thing to do... wow, this got me going xD i was imagining dialing a wormhole, give coördinates to known places, then remembered Stargate and the dial they used to lock in the Chevrons.... now i'm remembering flying faster than light in Elite Dangerous..... what a time to be alive, keep going humanity!
i love having people like Neil in the world. they love science so much and are social enough that they can make science fun and entertaining to us who arent into it. so thank you Neil for making science fun for all of us to learn
Tachyon is a good song too! Haha but this star talk was awesome! A teacher is doing there best work when the student is full of questions. Thanks for keeping me curious! Love the show!!
Oh my God, I was just thinking recently about Star Trek's vaporizing to travel. Thank you so much Neil for this explainer, we're on track of the same things!! Love it!!
That is awesome I have just finnished your book and was a bit confused about this thycon, great timing 😄
I actually love startalk. It answers so many questions i have in such a satisfying way.
It always blows my mind and makes me want to learn learn and learn some more!
Maximum Educational Entertainment ❤ I LOVE STARTALK ❕️
Huge startalk fan! Thanks guys !
I can't wait for Neil to come out with a video to explain this video!
Nah, this is pretty much what he does. He doesn't have much more to offer than what you just saw.
4:42 this conversation reminds me of a dream I wrote about a few years ago. “…I remembered an experience I had once in a dream, though I feel it was more the experience being strung out of my memories and mind forcefully, once of beings that move so fast they experience time differently. Beings so fast, they’ve already been to the end of time itself. Doomed to an existence of restless running, living life both forwards and backwards. The faster that you can go, the more you can process. These beings get caught in an intelligent observer paradox, knowing where it’s all going and knowing they cannot intervene in the slightest. Their hierarchy was determined by speed. The fastest have already paved the path ahead, they’ve already came and conquered a million times over. To live on pure instincts is their one purpose. It was like they wanted to know how we’re still here, what survival tactics kept you alive up to this point? I remembered being passed by one in a dream once, looking for the answer. Running frantically the opposite direction I was heading, all while I was constantly picking up speed. A pure, blue light. I could feel it regard me curiously. The question that came to mind was only one word. Why? That moment that our consciousnesses touched, I just..knew the being and understood what it was..and why it was so desperately searching every timeline in every plane of existence and every individual memory and dream experienced through the collectiveness of consciousness to ever be. It was all gone as fast as it came…” 8/8/22
Rumors travel faster than light.
You damn right lol 😂😂😂😂
I love this dude! I remember he had a show on netflix called cosmos, and I wish it were still going. 😢
its here and he has a co host, now. welcome.
@@theblacksoapboxxx I liked the netfix version more, but I do see how this is just the same thing but shorter.
The original Cosmos was directed by Dr. Carl Sagan. You should watch that if you haven't.
@@TheRealSkeletor will do
StarTalk has lower production costs than Cosmos. With hundreds of episodes thus far, StarTalk covers a wider subject matter than Cosmos. Don’t get me wrong, I loved both productions of Cosmos. The NDT version is available on some streaming platforms. BTW who didn’t see the Pfizer commercial on SB LVIII? Science rocks!!!
Pretty good, but i wanted them to touch on the alcubierre warp drive that theoretically goes faster than light by warping space
Mexican theoretical physicist, I think?! Almost like you are "surfing" the wave of Space. Brilliant idea! Now, let's figure out how to execute that maneuver!
@@michaelbraum77 Correct. In theory, the drive bends space in front of the craft into a "trough" or "well," and in the rear of the craft, space in bent into a "swell" or "wave." The ship then wants to "fall" into the well, and the wave "pushes" from behind. Since it's spacetime that's doing the actual propelling, speed is no longer a factor; from the craft's perspective (relative to local spacetime), it's "stationary." It's a bit like falling into a planet from far above orbit - you aren't being propelled downward by your own power, you're "sliding down the gravity well."
I think that kind of an engine would be the only way to get through the g's in the blackhole you'd generate from making something travel faster than light that I presume would create a supernova to form the blackhole/wormhole needed to create to do faster than light travel. If we're talking a method that night need the power of a star to generate that would be your equivalent of a lightspeed sonic boom. Kinda makes you wonder if some of those supernova are techno signatures from highly advanced alien civilizations. What if they all are and some of them are supernovas from their host star and they annihilated themselves?
Doesn't that require "negative mass" matter the size of Jupiter? There is not even theory if that kind of matter exists, as antimatter isn't it.
@@TheBiggreenpig negative energy, that's been solved alredy but it's still an exorbitant amount, but nowhere near what you would need for light speed
William Shakespeare understood what you have just explained. You're of exceptional brilliance. Nice discussion.
I tachyoned a few more years to my lifespan when I gave up smoking cigarettes, then fell into a black hole when I started back up again... Then I quit. Again.... And took up the habit, yet again, faster than light.... Then, finally, triumphantly, I quit for the last time!! I've also tachyoned a few extra pounds of girth from my overeating compensation of nicotine lackage, and I hate the world....... aaarrgghhh!!!! And I used tachyon twice. Love you! -2Ts
I enjoyed this discussion, very interesting topic 🤩
Please make a video on the principles of particle accelerator. I am studying radiation oncology and I am having difficulty grasping the principles of waveguide, klystrons and magnetrons. Thank you.
Feel better Dr Tyson
General Relativity! He was GREAT in the Family Time War!
Love you guys man!
*Yes we need to get started building that Tachyon Warp Drive Engine.* 🙏🏾
Brother, i love your show. I’ve learned so much. Im trying to find some new friends to talk about it. Most of mine can’t grasp the concept of it. To hood.😂
Great video 👍
Hi guys, I have a question for you and a topic for a possible video: Let's take the example of the earth and the sun, which are like 8 light minutes away (the example can apply for any other system). So let's (theoretically) suppose that we have a non-elastic non-flexible straight string from the earth to the sun. If someone on earth pulled this string, then the whole string would move at once, and the other edge would also move at the sun side. Since information cannot be transmitted faster than the speed of light, would the edge at the sun move 8 minutes later? Why? What would happen?
The vastness and beauty of the Universe NEVER ceases to amaze me! ❤ Okay guys, what if we use the vacuum of space for travel? Also, let's say we figure out how to go the speed of light or faster (minus the stargate idea). How would space debris affect us?
at 7:00 I have a question. It's known that light reverts to light speed once it exits a medium that's slowing it down. Theoretically this is because it's creating an interference pattern with the medium itself (photons moving passed electrons) then the light interacts with THAT, and the simplification of that is a product of light slower than c. My question is, at 7:00, it's stated as if light gets slower and slower the "deeper" the light reaches, as if light in a diamond ring UNDERWATER is slower than light in a diamond ring IN SPACE. Is that the case? To me, the light enters a medium, then exits it (returning to light speed) in order to enter the next medium, so there should be no difference. Meaning the entry speed of light into a medium is irrelevant, because each medium "layer" treats the incoming light as if it's traveling at c. Right? If that's the case, how do we know that c (lightspeed in the vacuum of space) has always been the same? Sure it may be c everywhere in space right now, but just as water can be more or less dense and still be water, can't space be more or less dense and still be space? Ideally the speed of light didn't change, just the medium in which it travels. And we already know for certain that space (the medium for c) has changed drastically at times. I might be remembering wrong, and maybe space during inflation and space right now is synonymous. I can't recall if space itself is being stretched thin over time, or if it's just the matter IN space. Now I'm thinking it's the latter, which would mean the the effects of the medium of space has been the same for light since the beginning. But the high energy density of the early universe (the matter IN space) could've been the diamond ring to the early universe's ocean (space).
Drawing the parallel between breaking the sound barrier in a medium and breaking the "light barrier" in a medium was fascinating.
The elusive wormhole that Captain Jayneway in Star Trek Voyager hoped would ‘appear’ and magically take them back to the Alpha quadrant. Excellent analysis. My favorite movie genre is Sci-Fi. I heard Einstein say its not possible before, but I chose to ‘Live in despair 😮
Great video!
🇱🇰 This is supper cool .. Thank you very much to given me this kind of knowledge 🙏
Neil, you have no idea how much I appreciate you speaking in the terms of miles per hour. Thank you.
Cling onto that English imperial system of measurement like a saturated life buoy.
I will agree than moving things have their electro-magnetic waves interact slightly differently. I would call that ageing differently, experiencing time differently, but not travelling through time differently. We always say as something zooms away from us that time appears to slow down, but when they come back you can observe what looks like time sped up.
Time symmetry would be a great route to understanding causality. If we follow an inverted light cone through timespace our experience of time might be generated by trailblazing negentropy
Never been so early to a video before. 😂 Love the show.
Man The Only Thing excite me is when i see new startalk Video ❤
Does the flash observed start at the point closest to the observer and have two points of light heading to the origin and the other destination of the particle thath caused it? Also could a particle which is not going faster than c be slowed less than light was before traversing the detector water?
More videos like this!
GREAT CONTENT
Can't go back and change my mind about watching this. Guess I'll stick it out.
Like a good science fiction novel, this episode is about hypothetical faster-than-light particles. For quantum fields with imaginary mass, see Tachyonic field. A tachyon or tachyonic particle is a hypothetical particle that always travels faster than light, exists in the caffeine field and snorts lines of speed that energizes and propels the tachyon chariot.
I’ve known about what Tachyons are since I think 3rd or first grade, from the Andrew Lost books…
So when a ray of light is transitioning between 2 medium boundaries, if it is losing speed (entering a denser medium), is it also losing energy? If yes is this energy being lost in the form of heat? Conversely, when the same light ray is coming out on the other side and speeding up back to C, is it gaining energy to gain that speed?
the point in relation to the video, just to disolve any confusion, is that tacheons are based on some equation that doesn't make any sense, it makes sense mathematically, but they belong to an equation which is a wrong extension of special relativity and the wrong way to view trajectories that move faster than light. whether it is a warp drive, a tacheon or a different generation of mass, if it moves faster than light it either broke the laws of physics, it did it by avoiding going through space faster than light, or it is not coupled to the causal structure setting the speed and from which matter that approximately behaves according to C emerges from. those are the three options, the tacheon is an nonphysical first option sort of ftl. what i am discussing is the third kind, and the second is what we would have to do to travel faster than light, cheat by bending space or something like that.
Bending space is the only option on the table. There is no alternative. Now just to create some energy equivalent to two black holes to warp space a bit haha.
The universe is 13.8 billion years old and 96 billion light years across. Yes.
I have a question and this is a question of perspectives. Say you are travelling near the speed of light in one direction and I am travelling near the speed of light in the opoosite direction. What is your speed relative to my position?
Light doesn't "slow down". It only appears to slow down as it moves through a medium. Light actually moves at a constant speed as denoted by the letter "c" in Einstein's field equations. Light can be absorbed and re-emitted when it travels through a medium. That in turn creates a phase kick and makes light appear to slow down. But in all actuality, once light is absorbed by the medium it's no longer traveling. It's transformed into the energy of the atom. That being said, objects can appear to travel faster than light, as Neil mentioned. But that's due to the expansion and warping of space. Any local object will always move slower than light as that object must interact with the Higgs field and acquire mass. Whereas light doesn't interact with the Higgs field and will always travel faster.
Legends
does the speed of light truly change in a medium or is it a statistial side effect of bumping into thing? like if i ran at 100 mph and rand into a rowd do i really slow to 10 mph or do i keep running at the same speed but bump into so many people it takes me ten times s long to pass through the crowd? it feels like the two reaons would be fundamentally different
Plz do a video on delayed choice of experiment. It’s a confusing concept so want to hear from you in your cool style
Neil deGrasse Tyson is like the Carl Sagan of our day go out watching you love your work and will always love science ✌️👍
This begs the question: what if you change the medium of the entire universe to one in which light moves slower (as in water or diamond) - or at least change the medium in the path in which the accelerated object / particles are moving? Imagine an orb designed for space travel that was entirely encased in diamond (and/or water), and which also emitted light particles. If you could accelerate this orb at 60.00001% the speed of light - what would happen? Would it travel at its base speed and constantly emit Cherenkov Radiation? Would it somehow surpass the speed of light and forego the laws of relativity? What is it exactly about the medium of water and diamond that alter the speed of light? What if you could mimic that alteration from the perspective of the source of the light particles - or other accelerated objects - without actually changing the medium itself? This is such a fascinating subject!!
I honestly and HUMBLY believe that space is NOT infinite and has a point that we cannot go beyond or move through. I think that space does bend and moves which is why it takes us a very long time to travel through it- because it is moving. For example, as we travel forward, it is also flowing forward and side and to the other side. How we ultimately in end to a point in space is because eventually it swings back or bends in another direction. You’re probably going to say that can’t be so because the stars in our solar system can be pinpointed to specific coordinates, BUT REMEMBER, we’re looking from only one direction. I wonder what we’d see if we were looking from a different direction, possibly further away. 🥰
Marvellous ❤
I have a question.. like what if say if we built an airship that travels in speed of light. Right? So while the ship is moving we can run from the end of the ship to the front of the ship. Doest that make our speed faster than light?
Neil and Chuck make a great team. Film next?
I can't give this enough thumbs up. BTW, In college I had three years of Math and Physics and had this kind of stuff in classes. Sometimes you'd walk out of class with your jaw dropped! Lol.
An interesting short story on this subject was written by the late Colin Kapp (back in 1971, I think) entitled The Imagination Trap. The astronauts piloted a spaceship flying faster than light, and accordingly increased their masses. To such an extent that one of them was walking through a corridor and noticed a bright speck of light. Upon analysis, the speck was discovered to be a star. Might have been more impressive had the speck been a galaxy. Such explains the futility of motion. What's the point of travel when you can expand to such a size you're already where you want to be before you leave to get there?
If it ever happens to you, you will feel yourself stream away initially but while you are immediately returning to your present. All you are left with is bits of localized information concerning random futures of anyone that is nearby when the time travel event began. It actually feels pretty good, like dry, wet air. Even if you give accurate predictions of the future no one will believe you and will not acknowledge that you were right after the requisite time passes and those predictions come true.
we have physics based on our observations and experimentation in the realm of how we (humans) see and can interact with the universe. i like to think there's other aspects of physics that we haven't yet discovered or thought of down the road that will open up very interesting branches we can explore. perhaps not in our lifetimes :)
It's crazy to think that, at least in this scenario, the speed of light is essentially an unbreachable wall from both sides. You seemingly cannot get slower nor faster than the speed of light depending on what side of that equation you're on. Interesting theory to think about
Although this channel talks about concepts I know very well already, I still love to see your videos, you are really two great presenters, I could easily be hours listening to your videos in a row. Great work, keep doing these great videos. :)
Please make a video on the space anomaly "The Great Attractor"!
This puts Terry Pratchett's Discworld in a whole another light (pun intended), as some of the Discworld novels start with a mention of light being slowed by a medium, in this case, magic. Nice!
"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, ..." -Sir Terry Prattchet
Its 2016 in Ethiopia right now. Does that affect the time travel equations?
Given the timeline of events regarding the universe (big bang, inflation, everything cooled down enough to clump together), could Inflation have happened after stuff formed? If so, what would happen to that stuff now that it had to go along for the ride?
I've actually been thinking about this lately. What is the relation between relativity and cherenkov radiation? does time start passing faster for the photon when it slows down in a medium? Would there be some weird time effects on the particles giving off the cherenkov radiation?
That graph made all concepts clears otherwise it would be harder. For those who didnt understand let me help you guys. Just imagine that you reached 100% speed of light time will stop. Now imagine that, that is your origin point in graph so you exist at the speed of light now the energy that you require to achieve the speed of light would be equal to the energy that could make you stop or slower so now what the more you will get slow the more you will go back in time. Just inverse.. wow physics is so beautiful
This is a channel I didn't know I wanted, until the algorithm gave it to me.
I wonder if it's at all possible le to side step the faster than light barrier? We always talk about things excelersting to the speed of light but is there a way to side step that requirement all together? Don't get me wrong I realize that It would be an Insane task but would it be possible to take something and shift it across that SOL barrier into a state of existing faster than light? And once done it should be possible le to shift it back.
Neil, I think I've come up with a concept that could allow you to travel faster than the speed of light: Imagine being able to control how fast space inflates. IF you could limit that to a "column" in front of you, just turn on inflation while you're in that column and jump out of the column when you have got to your desired distance. You have not broken the speed of light "in" your particular space, just manipulated that space. It's an interesting concept I've only just hypothisized, I have no idea what the possible problems would be and I very much doubt whether it would be possible. Perhaps if we understood what "dark energy" is and could produce and manipulate it at will. Hey, if this makes the "Sci Fi" genre, I want some royalties!!!
an object with mass cant move faster than light, but the space around it can, becuase space is moving faster than light. So we just need to figure out how to make the space around a space ship move FTL. Or if we can figure out wormholes.
Is it possible for a ship to go Ludacris speed like in the film 🎥 Spaceballs 😮
In theory, apparently. Michio Kaku says in a video that we would need approx the energy the size of Jupiter, surrounded by an energy field. I'm paraphrasing obviously, but something to that affect
"They've gone plaid!" ;-P
@@michaelccopelandsr7120 hahaha bahahaha 😂
@@hamster1zombie170 oh really I didn't know that thank you very much
Here’s a question, if we’re ever able to travel through wormholes, what challenges would we face? Say there was a hub with several different wormholes leading different places, would the intersecting wormholes have any impact? Could they even influence each other? or would they travel in another plane altogether?
Neil is a national treasure
Not entirely explained... lmao.. but loved it. Great vid guys, as always..
Give Chuck a raise!
So thinking about it and it may all be relativity but on earth we move a certain speed but we don't account the speed of the earth etc etc right, same thing on a plane even tho it picks up speed air equalizes in the plane and it's even but if you ended up going in a space ship going 99.999999999999999999% the speed of light and turned on a flashlight would you be able to outrun it or would you be locked in place unable to speed up or would you be able to move but light ends up moving the same speed in its own area in the ship.
what would it take to "prove" tachyons are real? and could you theoretically create a "solar sail" but using tachyons?
Neil, it would behoove to list and explain all FTL/Theoretical particles and what makes them unique. Thank you.
I hope worm holes are possible, I would love to be able to explore the universe that way. Probably won't be amlive to see it, though.
Tachyon: The Fringe is a highly underrated game starring Bruce Campbell as the protagonist, Jake Logan.
Chuck has the ability to stop time to determine the perfect response
I would like to hear your thoughts on the 3 body problem books and tv show.
In the cartoon Starblazers they explained how the wave motion engine worked, it could compress space molecules into tachyons particles to move the ship faster than light. Could this be theoretically possible?
About 04:45 f Special Relativity CAN handle acceleration, just as Newtonian Mechanics can. This was figured out by Wolgang Rindler, an Austrian- born American physicist.
The editor did a great job on this video. Snappy illustrations and animations but not over the top either.
If the tachyon, which is a kind of theoretical inverse of baryonic matter, has a mass (presumably some kind of exotic "anti-mass"), then would it not be limited to only being able to approach slowing down to the speed of light in the same way any particle with mass on this side of c can only approach c, but not actually reach it?
Spaceballs already proposed this with their Ludacris Speed.
*Ludicrous
Ludacris is a tooth paste.
Take a trip at the speed of light between 2 star systems. The light from your starting point may seem as though time has stopped but what about the light coming from your destination would it appear as time has doubled in speed.