I believe Helios 2 is the fastest man-made object in history at somewhere around 150,000 mph but has anyone done any experiments to attempt to achieve a higher rate of motion? It seems like a simple idea. Maybe we can achieve something faster than half the speed of light. Someone could make a circular contraption inside a vaccum that spins around a magnetic field to limit resistance. Then attach solar sails on the outside and shoot the solar sails with powerful lasers. This is the best porpulsion source I can think of considering light is the only thing that can travel the speed of light. ;-) Who knows?
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A particle accelerator can accelerate "objects" to speeds approching the speed of light, but of course the "objects" are very small. They use magnetism to accelerate them. I suppose the same method could be used to accelerate larger objects, but it takes a tremendous amount of energy to accelerate just a proton to that kind of speed. A macroscopic object would require ridiculous amounts of energy.
I just don't see the need for this.
My idea is to create an object of solid matter that simply spins. It doesn't have to travel from point a to point b. The reason for this idea is to see what happens when a physical object reaches it's maximum speed. Does it slow down gradually? Does it reach it's maximum speed at common rate and then stops going faster? Mostly this is curiosity but it could help to prove or disprove Einsteins theory of relativity.