PMC wrote:
@Blob,
Please excuse my ignorance on this!
But how could the initial rate of expansion of our infant universe be faster than the speed of light, when the physical properties of the universe itself prevent anything travelling beyond that speed?
...
What makes you so sure that the physical properties of the universe itself prevent anything travelling beyond the speed of light?
Especially by the given background, that just last week it was in the news, that scientists succeeded in "beaming" (dematerialisation, transport, rematerialisation) single atoms over a short distance.
But aside from that I was always wondering if it really should be impossible to exceed light speed.
All I know about black holes implies that exceeding light speed
must be physically possible:
If the gravitation of an black hole is really that big that even its own light can't escape from it, then it seems logical to me, that, if you're caught by the gravitation of this black hole, you will be accelerated in the direction of the centre of this gravity.
As this gravity is that strong, that even light can't escape from it, it is logical that you will be accelerated so much , that you exceed light speed before reaching the surface of this black "hole".
In my point of view (if I understood everything right) exceeding the lightspeed means that you leave the 4-dimensional space-time continuum and enter the next (fifth?) dimension.
