Colin Jeanne wrote:Purest form?
Light, like all other EM waves, is energy. It has no mass, and it has the ability to do work..
Coline Jeanne wrote:If things were really that simple then there wouldnt be any discussion on tachyons. Also, gamma rays have more energy than radio waves while both are electromagnetic waves.
There are many discussions on things like the VSL(Varying Speed of Light) theory, which do not break any of the principles that I stated, but do account for things travelling faster than the speed of light. The basic concept of VSL is that the speed of light in a vacuum is dependent on the general energy content of the region of the universe that you're in. This would allow for loopholes in what I said to exist. Loopholes that, while my reasoning would remain correct, would allow particles to travel faster than light.
EDIT: After reading the description of Tachyon's on wikipedia, I see no reason why what I said and the existence of such partilces cannot co-exist. In my post, though I don't state it, i'm referring to all "normal" particles. Particles that have been studied and are understood. If particles such as Tachyons do in fact exist, then the fundamental facts upon which my reasoning was based will have to be in some way incorrect. My reasoning based on said facts however, is still valid...it's the underlying premises that could fail. So, if we go ahead and deny current physics, which is certainly a valid and probably smart thing to do, because all systems die off with time..and our current ideas are no different, then yes my explanation is incorrect. However, in the context of Einsteinian physics as it relates to the question "why can nothing travel faster than c?", my reasoning and premises are both perfectly valid.
Tachyon's are to Einsteinian physics what the curvature of space-time was to Newtonian physics.