How to break the speed of light

You can break the speed of light in your back yard! (but don't worry, Einstein is still right)



Minute Physics provides an energetic and entertaining view of old and new problems in physics -- all in a minute!

Music by Nathaniel Schroeder

Created by Henry Reich Created by Henry Reich

[RenkoBocchi]

How to break the speed of light:
Step 1: Name a vase "Speed of Light"
Step 2: Break it.

[maxlionel]

what if i thew a ball like really fast

[ninathereserosenrn]

Pixles can move' just throw your computer out the window and boom moving pixles

[lrmcatspaw]

Tell a girl on your first date that you are unemployed and she will leave you faster than the speed of light.

[Meow_YT]

Reading the comments, I sometimes wonder if people bother to watch the videos. The photons don't break the speed limit. All that happens is you get an image that appears to travel faster than light moving across the surface of the moon, because the object that created them was set up to do it. Nothing has travelled faster than light, because the photons that create the dot are not the same photons that created it in the previous time-frame. Nothing is moving across the surface, just the illusion of something.

[JimFortune]

If you move the pointer to a different point on the moon wouldn't it be like moving the nozzle of a garden hose to point to a different spot on the lawn? Water would not hit the new point of aim until the water leaving the hose at the time you moved it had traveled the distance from the nozzle to the new aiming point. So how is the water traveling faster than SoW (speed of water)? 
I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm saying I don't get what you're saying.

[tomzhangg]

IF YOU RECORD LIGHT, PUT IN FAST FORWARD, THEIR YOU GO. PROBLEM EINSTEIN?

[ishika]

I'm going to annoy some NASA scientists now ... >:)
WHY IS THERE A GIANT RED DOT ON THE MOON?

[jobjackobrien]

I'm so glad i found this video. I posed this exact same question to my physics teacher in leaving cert and we eventually after some debating came to this also. it was nice to see another physicist mentioning the exact same problem i had

[Therm]

Darn it. I would have felt pretty powerful knowing that every time I point a laser at the moon, I would have a chance of screwing up an entire important space mission.
An astronaut should point a laser at the earth and see who saw it :P

[tristanmoller]

I think it was Vsauce who elaborated it. He mentioned that the dot doesn't travel from Point A on the Moon to Point B on the Moon, but rather from Point C, the source, to Point A on the moon or to point B on the moon.

[Jayeeyee]

Shooting a laser at the moon and flicking your wrist does not mean you'll break the speed of light barrier. The light particles from the laser will still hit/fall onto the moon at the speed of the flick. The speed of light cannot be beat.. it is the absolute speed limit of our universe as we [so far] know of.

[jakewoolard]

A lot of people here have no idea what is being explained. The phenomenon has nothing to do with the speed of light really. Try this example: You point a powerful flashlight at the moon so that it is illuminating the full face of the moon. You run your hand between the moon and the light source. the speed of light stays constant. The shadow won't appear on the moon instantaneously. BUT BUT BUT, the shadow WILL move from one side of the moon to the other FASTER than a beam of light emitted from one side to the other. This is because the image (shadow) must take the same amount of time to cross the moon as it did for your hand to pass in front of the light, but over a much longer distance.

[KenTheoriaApophasis]

light has no speed son, its a rate of induction

[dx]

This does not break the speed of light

[askdf]

Yes, this is just the *illusion* of going faster than light, but he has mentioned this in the video and given a very thorough explanation as to why this is simply an illusion. So no need to get out your ten cartons of salt and start dumping it all over the place >.>

[gustavmardby]

How to create something faster than the light:
Turn on a flashlight and record it. Then watch the record and turn on fast forward on the video. You´ve now created something faster than the speed of light. 
Problem? :)

[ShortLive]

How to break the speed of light:
Step 1: Point a laser pointer at the moon
Step 2: Get fucking arrested for pointing a laser into the night sky

[snipperjoey]

Yeah, because when I shine a laser to the freaking moon I can see it perfectly from my back yard...

[GregoryCarnegie]

Doesn't sound right to me, the moon isn't gonna know that you waved the laser until 1.2 seconds after you do it. So wouldn't the spot created on the moon by the laser move much slower that the speed of light?