Correct me if I’m wrong, but from my understanding, it’s only impossible for an object with mass to accelerate to the speed of light. If something was magically accelerated to above c, it wouldn’t break any rules to stay above c.
So what would happen in a collision between a slow object and something moving faster than c?
Allowing the magic part, the kinetic energy equation still applies. So fast velocity minus the slow in that direction. Might as well have been going a bit slower than light. A grain of dust at even a small percentage of light has a lot of energy.
Add to my guess that I think relativity might rear its head in this and say that even if it was going that fast, it would only appear to go less. Same reason why light is seen to go at c by all observers, no matter the frame of reference. There’s equations for that.
The kinetic energy equation does not apply, because classical mechanics (including Ek = 1/2mv2) only works for scenarios much slower than c.
in relativistic scenarios you have to use Einstein’s math. That involves multiplication by the Lorentz Factor 1/√(1-v2/c2). Solving for any velocity larger than c results in taking the square root of a negative number, which means that the kinetic energy of a superluminal object is literally imaginary (in the mathematical sense).
Valid point. We’d never be in the position anyway because we’ve already used “magic” to create the possibility.