The Earth doesn’t feel gravity from where the Sun is right now it feels gravity from where the Sun was eight minutes ago. Really, the speed of light should have been called the “speed of information” or “the universe’s speed limit.” It’s baked into relativity and the very idea of cause and effect, which are at the heart of physics.Įven gravity can’t move faster than light. Information has to travel through space just like everything else, and the fastest anything can travel in this universe is the speed of light. And in this universe, everything, including information, has a speed limit. Think about it: in order for two things to be causally related to each other (like you disappearing here and you appearing somewhere else), they have to somehow talk to each other. Anything that happens (an effect) has to have a cause, which in turn requires the transmission of information. Unfortunately, physics has some pretty hard rules about anything happening instantaneously. If your dream of teleportation is to be here in one moment, and then be in a totally different place the next moment, then we are sad to tell you right off the bat that this is impossible. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © 2021 by Jorge Cham and Daniel Whiteson. Excerpted from Frequently Asked Questions about the Universe by Jorge Cham and Daniel Whiteson.
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