A question for physicists - special relativity?

Question

I've been studying special relativity for awhile now, and I had this interesting thought on the 'speed limit' of the universe, a.k.a c.

First and foremost we all need to realize that special relativity and the equations for relativistic transformations are all based on the fact that WE CAN observe a given object.

Next we have to realize, for something to be observable, it needs to have something reflecting off of it i.e. light, information (light being the fastest thing that reflects)etc. If you need to, imagine yourself in a pitch black room, you obviously can't observe any movements in given objects.

Now let's take the time transformation equation, t' = tγ. Upon velocity approaching c, the observer's time will approach infinity.

Now I will present to you my conjecture:

The theory that states nothing with a rest mass greater 0 can travel at or greater than c is partially false. Yes, an observer will NEVER observe something traveling at or faster than c through the fact that nothing is reflecting off of the object. The observer won't see the object until it slows down enough to reflect light, but just because it can't be observed, doesn't mean it's not possible. Furthermore, it is possible to travel faster than c, but when you reach c, you become unobservable.

To add to my argument, take the equation e = γmc^2. This is one of prime reasons for which the speed limit of c was set. At first glance it makes sense, something that approaches the speed of c, would require more and more energy, and obtaining c would require infinite energy. But the key thing people are missing is that γm is a relativistic transformation of m, meaning it only applies when observing something else's mass in accordance with its velocity. And thus doesn't pertain to an object's observation of itself. (or that's at least what I'm suggesting is wrong with SR)

Answer 1

  What you are trying to do is say - only the observations count, what actually happens is different.  But in fact, what actually happens, as experienced on the moving object, is relativistic.  The object behaves as though its mass is getting greater and greater and it people on the object have never studied relativity, they are bewildered as to why pouring more and more energy into their machine does not make it go much faster.

  And if you try to say - well the mass increase can not be observed, it certainly can because particles on earth, going round and round in cyclotrons increase in mass according to relativity and if the effect were ignored, they would crash into the walls because more force is needed to keep them from going around.

Answer 2

Firstly, it should be clarified that the SR theory is not based on the fact that somebody will be able to even perceive the speed of light. It is just a conjecture that this speed may be somehow filmed or shot by an advanced camera or something of the sort. Now for the other part.

Let us consider a train of infinite length and a height of h Km(relativistically large). Let the train be moving at a speed v(relativistic) Km/sec. A person inside the train shoots a beam from the base of the train to the top, where a reflector is placed. He finds the beam to reflect back from the top in (h/c) sec as it takes a vertical path. For a person outside the beam would travel in an isosceles triangle with the base vertices as the person and the reflector as the third vertex. The base would be of length (v.t) Km where t is the time taken by the light to return to source in seconds. The  distance traveled by the light would be (c.t) Km while the vertical altitude is h Km. Using Pythagoras Theorem we find out h2=(c2-v2)t2 or t=h/((c2-v2)^1/2). Now as the speed of the train v approaches c, t increases. It can be seen that t for outside is greater than t for inside. Thus as v->c, t->infinity. For the person inside the time would not change and so RELATIVE to him v can exceed c, but RELATIVE to  the person outside v can at most tend to c, but can never be equal to c. Because then he would find that the time inside the train has come to a standstill.

SR theory bases on the fact that the same object will be different RELATIVE to different observers, like on the same road a Northbound observer will see a tree to be on his left, while a Southbound observer will see the same tree to be on his right.

The practical application of SR theory however is limited only to our dreams.

Moreover for the e=mc2=ym(0)c2 where m is the rest mass, it needs to be said that for a stationary observer the energy will seem to move towards infinity, but for another observer moving at the same speed, would find that the energy of the body remains as it was when it was stationary. It may be considered for simplified understanding that since he has gained energy he is not being able to perceive the energy gain of the other body.



If you ask me how is this possible, for it goes against the common logic, then I should say that before starting of with relativity, we should forget our common logic and proceed only with Mathematics and Physics and the answer thus got howsoever improbable is true.