Question

In a television picture tube, a beam of electrons is sent from the back to the front (screen) by an electron gun. When an electron strikes the screen, il causes a phosphor to glow briefly. To produce an image across the entire screen. the beam is electrically deflected up and down and left and right. The beam may sweep from left to right at a speed greater than c. Why is this not a violation of the claim that no information may travel faster than the speed of light?

Short answer

As light contains massless particles like photons, that is one of the main reasons no other information may travel faster than the speed of light.

Step-by-step solution

Significance of the speed of light

The speed of light is described as the number the light travels in one second. The light travels about 299792458 meters per second.

Determination of the violation of the claim

If there are two events such as hitting a screen at different positions which usually does not have any kind of effects. Apart from that, while the transition, no other information has been transferred as a beam do not have a physical identity. Hence, exceeding the light’s speed is not a special relativity’s violation.

Thus, as light contains massless particles like photons, that is one of the main reasons no other information may travel faster than the speed of light.