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The speed of light
(mander.xyz)
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this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2026
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Whilst we're at it can someone explain;
A) a photon travels at the speed of light because it is massless, right? But doesn't E=mc² teach us that mass and energy are somewhat interchangeable? How can a photon have energy but no mass?
B) I'm willing to accept it as fact when smarter people tell me that FTL is impossible because, amongst other things, it will break causality. It makes perfect sense to me that the universe needs to have some unbreakable rules for things to remain consistent. But I've never been able to grasp exactly why it would break causality.
A) from a photon's perspective extrapolating relativity, zero time passes from when it is created to when it is absorbed. Essentially the two points are connected and the interaction is pure causality. This is part of the quantum nature of matter and can be understood as the manifestation of the probability of the two points interacting. An outside observer in three dimensional space doesn't see the folds in higher dimensions that allow these interactions. We observe a time difference from the source to the target but our observation itself requires similar prabalistic folds in higher dimensions to make such observations, so the effect is never in isolation but as a combination that cancels the paradox. Of course I'm just making this all up, but it sounds good, eh? I'm a little bit high. Sorry.