Will humans ever achieve light speed?

[JFP in PA]

Originally Posted by jb92563

The power for reaching the speed of light need not be that great.

A solar sail could accelerate a craft to near light speed as the pressure of light pushed against the sail. Its just that the acceleration is so small that it would take a very long time to reach near light speed.

So although I don't think our race will get to develop light speed travel for many 100's of years if we can survive that long, I do think that it is possible.

I don't understand why TIME slows or reverses when you reach or exceed light speed.

The amount of time that passes remains constant right?

If the light from the sun takes 8 minutes to reach you, it does not change the fact that 8 minutes have passed.

Am I missing something?

Time slows due to the mass increase of the object accelerating towards that speed, which is also why the amount of energy required to continue acceleration also rises. Time slows as mass increases due the mass distortion of the space/time continuum. As you asymptotically approach the speed of light, the object mass becomes infinite (and time within it stops relative to other locations, as it would inside a black hole for the same reason), and the energy demand to continue acceleration also becomes infinite.