Another Light Speed Question

[dragon04]

Or two.<br /><br />Please forgive my ignorance, but something occurred to me while I was reading the boards yesterday.<br /><br />Theoretically, you can never travel at c unless you have no mass.<br /><br />Yet, here I sit, typing this question receeding from some galaxy at the appropriate distance at a relative speed of c (or greater).<br /><br />So. Isn't inaccurate to say it's impossible to travel at light speed?<br /><br />Secondly, we estimate the age of the universe relative to us and what we observe.<br /><br />Is our recession rate taken into consideration when we estimate the age of the observable universe?<br /><br />And finally, if earth is receeding from some galaxy far, far away at c, is there any way to quantify the rate at which we accelerated to achieve c?<br /><br />It confuses me how I can can be sitting in this chair immobile while:<br /><br />The earth travels aroun the sun at x velocity and<br />The solar system travels aroun the galactic core at yv<br />The galaxy recedes from everything else at varying (up to and inlcuding c or c+) velocities relative to its position.<br /><br />I'm not moving, but moving. And I'm moving at essentially an infinite different number of differing velocities simultaneously.<br /><br />I guess I just need to hit the lottery and take up astrophysics in my retirement. Barring sudden good fortune and enrollment in a university, are there any texts out there that someone with only an algebra background could purchase to get a better understanding of all this?<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>"2012.. Year of the Dragon!! Get on the Dragon Wagon!".</em> </div>

 

[Saiph]

to the greater than C:<br /><br />I point you here: http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/cosmology_faq.html#FTL<br /><br />To the age I'll let you know that our velocity, or rather the expansion velocity of the universe, is what determines the age. 1/Ho is the age of the universe. So,yes, it's considered, because that's how define the age.<br /><br /><br />As for astronomy texts: <br /><br />For Relativity:<br /><br />THe teaching company has a good set of lectures on tape about it.<br /><br />Kip Thorne's "Black Holes and Time Warps" (or something) is another good read.<br /><br />For general astronomy:<br /><br />I enjoyed reading Micheal A. Seeds Introductory Astronomy text. It's frequently used for freshman, non science major classes. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p align="center"><font color="#c0c0c0"><br /></font></p><p align="center"><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">----</font></em></font><font color="#666699">SaiphMOD@gmail.com </font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">-------------------</font></em></font></p><p><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">"This is my Timey Wimey Detector.  Goes "bing" when there's stuff.  It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually.  I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- </font></em></font><font size="1" color="#999999">The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>