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Originally Posted by renormalised
Yes, and I agree that infinities in SR have a definable interpretation, in that they are the reason for the speed of light barrier. However that doesn't lessen the fact that they're a cause of problems for SR. What needs to be done is more theoretical research into the actual nature of photons and what exactly happens when particles travel at lightspeed.... not just the usual interpretation of "Oh yeah, they reach infinite mass and zero size....SR said so". That makes them singularities (of infinite mass). Wouldn't matter from what inertial frame of reference you observed at, it would be disastrous for both you and the particle (or person in the ship).
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The building of progressively more powerful particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider is more than ample proof of the futility of accelerating particles to the speed of light. It's no coincidence that protons will be accelerated to "only" 99.99% the speed of light using enormous amount of potential energy.
Since m and E are related (E=mc2) most of the increase in mass of a particle approaching the speed of light is in fact taken up by the KE of the particle. If it was possible for the particle to reach the speed the light, the KE would become infinite. The mass won't turn into gravitational sink.
Regards
Steven