Can we accelerate a particle to the speed of light?
In the right conditions, electromagnetic fields can accelerate particles at near-light-speed. Particle accelerators, like the Large Hadron Collider and Fermilab, use pulsed electromagnetic fields to accelerate charged particles up to 99.99999896\% the speed of light.
Why is it impossible to accelerate an object to the speed of light?
Nothing can travel faster than 300,000 kilometers per second (186,000 miles per second). Only massless particles, including photons, which make up light, can travel at that speed. It’s impossible to accelerate any material object up to the speed of light because it would take an infinite amount of energy to do so.
How does photon travel?
As shown by Maxwell, photons are just electric fields traveling through space. Photons have no charge, no resting mass, and travel at the speed of light. Photons are emitted by the action of charged particles, although they can be emitted by other methods including radioactive decay.
Why do particles gain mass when accelerated?
As an object increases in speed, so does the amount of energy that it has, this energy is what we refer to as ‘the increase in mass’ (just remember, this is inertial mass). Since an object has infinite kinetic energy when it approaches the speed of light, it therefore has infinite mass as well.
Is it possible to accelerate a particle to the speed of light?
The energy required to accelerate a massive particle to the speed of light is infinite, yes. Photons are massless, though, so they travel at the speed of light regardless of what amount of energy you put into them. (It doesn’t really make sense to talk about accelerating a photon, since it will always travel at the speed of light.)
Is it possible to accelerate a photon?
The answer is yes. For instance when travelling from one medium to another light changes speeds. In fact, the actual photon is abosrbed and a new photon is reradiated during this process. However, you could call this effectively light acceleration
Why do photons always travel at the speed of light?
Some people say that the reason a photon travels at light speed the moment it is created is because it is a massless particle, and therefore must always travel at the speed of light. While it is true that the photon is massless and therefore always travels atcin all reference frames, this is not the reason that it is created already having a speed.
Is it possible for a particle to accelerate to infinity?
They are created at this speed so no problem with infinity arises. The energy required to accelerate a massive particle to the speed of light is infinite, yes. Photons are massless, though, so they travel at the speed of light regardless of what amount of energy you put into them.