Star Trek question?

Star Trek and speed-of-light question.?

• OK, we believe that nothing can go faster than the speed of light. And I know that Star Trek 'bends' the rules we know, for tv and movies. So please don't do the Star Trek B.S. remarks. A friend of mine said that his dad, a Marine, learned that water, when ships go through it, or people jump out of planes or helicopters; into it, moves out of the way. But up to a specific speed. Something about the molecules cannot move out the way after a certain speed. So what I understand, things have a 'peak' moving through water. I also understand it applies to air. Lighter, so we can move faster, but even air molecules reach a point where they cannot move out the way. Which leads to speed-of-light. Is it POSSIBLE that light has a "top speed" because something like 'dark energy' does not allow light to move any faster, than it can move? If that is true, I would imagine that if we can fly around space as fast as Star Trek, then dark energy would keep us from moving faster than a specific speed. I know that it is a movie and tv show; but when the Enterprise goes faster than normal, the ship shakes violently. Sounds like "friction" to me; even if it is dark energy type of friction.

• Answer:

  No, it's more complicated than that because of the way time and space changes when you move. Also, if I'm moving at 0.9c and shine a beam of light, it still appears to be moving at c from my point of view. (Also from the point of view of anybody else, due to those changes in time and space). You're thinking of space in terms of a medium, such that it would be possible to define "standing still in space". But there is no such thing. No particular point of view has the sole claim to being "at rest". That was a 19th-century idea that got discarded early in the 20th century.