Is relativity common knowledge?

[Red Mage Black]

To my best knowledge of physics, which is general and covers just about every other subject I know in definition, there is nothing that can break the speed of light, as you said. That and the whole Laws of the Conservation of Energy, but I think that begs the question, "How do we actually know how much energy is in the Universe and can it be measured?" You have to not only take into account Stars(dead and alive), but planets, comets, asteroids, meteors, even black holes(which aren't even holes) and break it down to the atomic level.

I'm not sure what this whole "we'll end up breaking physics" thing is about. Frankly, if it was something achievable, then it was already a function of the Universe in the first place. Warp Speed sounds fun, even near light speed sounds good(improbable, but not impossible). I guess the fact you mentioned that people decide to substitute for 'Rule of Cool' is about Mass. The bigger something is, the more energy is required to propel it forward and I don't think we have any source of energy strong enough(or a sufficient amount of) to even propel anything larger than a scooter to the speed.

If anything, the whole "energy cannot be created or destroyed has made me think. When something else 'breaks down', so to speak, the universe finds a completely different use for the energy that is released from it.

Ugh, I think I've rambled on a bit too much now. tl;dr: You're right and our generation is just getting dumber.

EDIT: And I was completely beaten out by Synk, who has a much better explanation of why our generation doesn't have the information.

[Aerozord]

Originally Posted by Red Mage Black

To my best knowledge of physics, which is general and covers just about every other subject I know in definition, there is nothing that can break the speed of light, as you said. That and the whole Laws of the Conservation of Energy, but I think that begs the question, "How do we actually know how much energy is in the Universe and can it be measured?" You have to not only take into account Stars(dead and alive), but planets, comets, asteroids, meteors, even black holes(which aren't even holes) and break it down to the atomic level.

Matter is matter. It doesn't ... err matter, what form its in X amount of mass has X amount of energy. Most of the energy that isn't is heat which is easy enough to measure. So we can ballpark this decently.

Originally Posted by Red Mage Black

I'm not sure what this whole "we'll end up breaking physics" thing is about. Frankly, if it was something achievable, then it was already a function of the Universe in the first place. Warp Speed sounds fun, even near light speed sounds good(improbable, but not impossible). I guess the fact you mentioned that people decide to substitute for 'Rule of Cool' is about Mass. The bigger something is, the more energy is required to propel it forward and I don't think we have any source of energy strong enough(or a sufficient amount of) to even propel anything larger than a scooter to the speed.

Its hard to explain that part of the argument because its based on differing mindsets. I guess you can sum it up as this.

Me: While we dont understand everything about physics, we understand enough to know you cant go faster than light.

Them: We dont currently know how to go faster than light, but someday we will.

What bothers me personally is I hate this mindset that everything is an eventuality even if science says its flat out impossible.