How This Particle Could Break Our Understanding of Reality

EINSTEIN'S SPECIAL THEORY OF relativity teaches us that nothing can accelerate past the speed of light. But what if, when you were born, you were already moving faster than light? What would that look like?

- Paul M. Sutter

Turns out, the type of particle that could enable such a strange circumstance already has a name the tachyon-and its existence wouldn't just break our understanding of physics, but our grip on reality as we know it.

The Rules for Traveling Faster Than Light // As objects move faster, they gain more energy. But relativity tells us that mass and energy are the same thing (as in E=mc²). An object approaching the speed of light picks up an infinite amount of mass, which would require an infinite amount of energy to push therefore, all massive objects are forever restricted to speeds below that of light.

Yet relativity tells us that if a special particle were to appear on the scene, already traveling faster than light, then it would be forced to move at light speed forever.

The hypothetical tachyon particle could beat light speed. The problem: Its existence would rewrite a fundamental aspect of our physical universe.

Tachyons Don't Follow Cause-and-Effect Logic // The issue here is causality-the principle that everything has a cause, that every cause leads to an effect, and that every effect comes from a cause. For example, if I want to put coffee in my mug (an effect), I have to pour the coffee from the pot into the mug (a cause).