They say it’s impossible, but is it really? According to Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, nothing travels faster than light because as matter approaches this speed, its mass tends to infinity and requires an infinite amount of energy. In other words, it is a universal speed limit, a constant that travels at 300,000 km per second. As Space.com publishes, this limit applies to the entire universe. And yet, the claim that nothing can travel faster than light has a trick, because the tagline “in a vacuum” would have to be added.
Space vacuum It is usually understood as the absence of matter and energy, but even under these circumstances vacuum energy exists. If this were reduced, it might be possible for light to travel faster than the standard 300,000 km/s, although this could not be demonstrated due to technological limitations. While light travels at maximum speed in a vacuum, it can be slowed down if it passes through absorbing materials such as water or glass.
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Light slows down when passing through certain materials.
Light bends when it comes in contact with particles, so it slows down. For example, in water it moves at a speed of 225,000 km/s and in glass at 200,000 km/s. According to PBS NOVA, when light passes through diamonds, the speed is almost halved, to about 124,000 km/s. And what happens the moment the light comes into contact with the Earth’s atmosphere? The truth is that its speed is similar to that in a vacuum, as it only drops by about 10,000 km/s.
Russian scientist Pavel Alekseevich Cherenkov, winner of the 1958 Nobel Prize, demonstrated that Cherenkov radiation (the blue shock wave seen in nuclear power plants) It can move faster than light in water. Returning to the above: as the speed of light decreases in this medium, it opens up the possibility that it is possible to outpace light outside of the vacuum.
