Faster Than Light

"Even though most physicists believe that the speed of light is as fast as anyone can go, Einstein's theory of special relativity does not rule out faster-than-light (FTL) travel. On the contrary, it seems to indicate that certain superluminal or FTL effects would permit us to re-experience the past: time travel would become a reality, not science fiction. Through this crack in the cosmic egg steps Herbert, a Stanford physicist and author of Quantum Reality, who summarizes clearly current speculation and theory about faster-than-light travel. Along with space warps, black holes and tachyons (hypothetical FTL particles), he looks at the so-called 'quantum connection'—an alleged force said to instantaneously link any two subatomic particles long after they have bumped into each other. Free of the woolgathering that tints much writing on the 'new physics', this brave, exciting book should send scientists back to their drawing boards; for the nonspecialist reader, it reveals a world much stranger than Star Trek."—Publishers Weekly "Original, challenging, and audacious."—San Diego Magazine

Earth falls victim to an enigmatic, advanced race whose space fortress is moving closer all the time. Faster Than Light features a special introductory price of $1.99.

This is an insightful examination of one of the essential problems of the history of science - how does elite, esoteric knowledge get read, used, modified, and owned by those outside the professional scientific community? Price focuses on one of the defining scientific ideas of the 20th century and skillfully demonstrates the many genres and styles through which it was adopted and changed.

Albert Einstein knew already in the early 1900s, when he first published his famous paper about the constancy of the speed of light, that not only did this constancy imply that mass contains energy (E = m c squared), but that faster-than-light motion could lead to paradoxes -- some that seemed to involve backwards time travel. What are these paradoxes? Why is light and its speed relevant? This book will lead you through an obstacle course of conundrums and oddities, building up your understanding of how light's speed creates simple but mind-expanding paradoxes -- one conceptual riddle at a time. This is not your average popular science book. This is also not a textbook. This book takes one theme -- the universally constant speed of light -- and shows how it may appear compromised on scales from the quantum mechanics of the very small to the cosmology of the very large, and the resulting surprising implications can result. Book Review 1: "Imagine embarking on a journey to comprehend the physics of the entire universe with a guide who’s not only an expert but makes the concepts digestible and entertaining. Robert J. Nemiroff offers such a journey in Faster Than Light, a book that initially describes the speed of light, then touches on subjects as esoteric as time travel using the theory of relativity and speculation on how to send information back in time, among other subjects." -- blue ink Book Review 2: " ... takes readers on a wild ride through the ins and outs of the speed of light in this mind-bending guide. His primary approach is through a series of humorous thought experiments ... explanations are clear and concise, and most of them require only logic to sort out, making the book more accessible than similar titles." -- Booklife Book Review 3: "A fresh and joyous ride through the mind-bending puzzles at the heart of nature's most fundamental speed that remind us that the universe is strange beyond belief" -- Caleb Scharf (Author: THe Ascent of Information) Book Review 4: "Better than a new particle collider!" -- Sabine Hossenfelder (Author: Existential Physics)

While the theory of special relativity is often associated with the idea of traveling faster than light, this book shows that in all these cases subtle forces of nature conspire to prevent these motions being harnessed to send signals faster than the speed of light. The author tackles these topics both conceptually, with minimal or no mathematics, and quantitatively, making use of numerous illustrations to clarify the discussion. The result is a joy to read for both scientists familiar with the subject and laypeople wishing to understand something of special relativity.

The idea that the speed of light is a constant - at 186,000 miles per second - is one of the few scientific facts that almost everyone knows. That constant - c- also appears in the most famous of all scientific equations: e=mc2- Yet over the last few years, a small group of highly reputable young physicists have suggested that the central dogma of modern physics may not be an absolute truth - light may have moved faster in the earlier life of the universe, it may still be moving at different speeds elsewhere today. In telling the story of this heresy, and its gradual journey towards acceptance, Joao Magueijo writes as one of the three central figures in the story, introducing the reader to modern cosmology, to the implications of VSL (variable speed of light) and to the world of physicists. The initial rejection of Magueijo's ideas is beginning to give way to a reluctant acceptance that the young men may have a point - only the next few years will tell the final fate of this 'dangerous' idea.

In 1905, Albert Einstein declared speeds greater than light to be impossible. This book describes the author’s decades-long search for the hypothetical subatomic particles known as tachyons that violate this principle. This book is a scientific detective story. The crime is speeding—that is, the possible breaking of the cosmic speed limit, namely the speed of light, as stipulated by Einstein. This detective story is also a memoir written by a member of a band of "tachyon hunters." The author’s pursuit of tachyons has been met with skepticism from most physicists, who note correctly that no such superluminal particles have ever been surely observed and that there have been many false sightings. Nevertheless, considerable circumstantial evidence for tachyons has already been published and an ongoing experiment could decide the issue in the next few years. This book is written for the general reader, containing humor and eliminating jargon whenever possible, and will also be of interest to scientists. The hunt for the tachyon will fascinate all readers who approach the study of physics with curious and open minds.

Why is the sky blue? What killed off the dinosaurs? How big is the universe? Can computers think? Why do we grow old? To the open-eyed and inquisitive, nature is a fascinating curiosity shop with an endless array of wonders and mysteries on display. Yet most of us know very little about the marvelous aspects of science that surround us every day of our lives. Why Nothing Can Travel Faster than Light is a lively collection of engrossing and highly readable essays that shed light on some of the most provocative questions about science and technology. Barry and David Zimmerman, brothers who teach science and write widely on science subjects, range effortlessly across the broad spectrum that is nature: from how the universe began to its probable fate, from cryonics to ozone depletion, from natural history to quantum physics. Their essays will enlighten and entertain everyone who enjoys the wonder of exploring nature's marvelous curiosity shop.