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From: Shinbrot.WBST@PARC-MAXC.ARPA@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: Traveling at speed of light
Message-ID: <12386@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 10-Oct-83 12:41:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.12386
Posted: Mon Oct 10 12:41:00 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Oct-83 00:56:15 EDT
Lines: 17

Afraid you've missed something.  The mass of a fast-moving object does
increase with its speed, but not due to changes in chemical bonding or
similar properties.  Furthermore, from the vantage point of sthe
fast-moving object, NOTHING has changed.  This is fundamental to the
theory of relativity.  There is a limit to the speed of a spaceship
because its inertia (mass) increases as its speed approaches c.
Therefore the force needed to accelerate it an amount a, is increasingly
large (since F = ma).  Inside the spaceship, again, this is not
observable.   Newtonian laws still seem to be obeyed, the mass of the
spaceship seems unchanged, the mass of the fuel seems unchanged.  The
speed of the ship at any time, seems to be zero (if you ignore the stars
whizzing by) once the acceleration is stopped.

- Troy

PS. As I've recently prosletized, there's a great book that makes all of
this tractable, "Einstein for Beginners."