Tech+Knowledge+Y: Light Speed
How fast is light speed and is it possible?
Jan 08, 2016
— Atlanta, GA
Star Wars hero Han Solo isn’t a bashful hero. So it’s no surprise that it took him only a few moments after we first met him to brag that his Millennium Falcon was the “fastest ship in the galaxy.” But how fast is fast? Solo said his ship can go .5 past light speed.
In this edition of Tech+Knowledge+Y, School of Physics Associate Professor Deirdre Shoemaker explains how fast light speed really is, why it’s not fast enough and what needs to happen for something to actually travel 186,000 miles per second.