Movement Made Possible by Kinetic Energy
Most people have a vague idea of what energy is. They might believe it to be a sort of fuel that allows objects to move and work. While this is true, energy is a much broader set of theories and laws that helps define our universe. For example, chemical energy contains the energy that helps bind atoms together in chemical bonds. Mechanical energy is energy transferred by a force, such as when two objects collide. To be capable of moving, objects need to have kinetic energy.
A Variable in the Equation
Kinetic energy is defined as the amount of energy needed to accelerate an object (and consequently the energy needed to decelerate the object as well). There are many equations and formulas associated with kinetic energy like most other energy models, but the ones that most concern us at the moment are the ones associated with relativistic mechanics, which state that it would require an infinite amount of kinetic energy to accelerate an object to the speed of light.
However, other scientists have theorized that an object already going faster than the speed of light would be unable to go slower than light due to that same model. So, would an object be able to go faster than the speed of light? With kinetic energy, they would be unable to. Scientists, though, have theorized of special models that would allow objects to go faster than the speed of light not by using kinetic energy, but by folding space so that the distance between two points in the universe would effectively be short or even negligible, something along the lines of what's seen in Frank Herbert's Dune. Whether there is any truth behind the theory or if it is just a fanciful way of expressing math remains to be seen, but the theory holds perhaps the best hope today for interstellar colonization.
Another interesting point of kinetic energy is that it is only associated with acceleration and deceleration. Once an object is going a particular speed, physical laws state that it will remain in motion at that speed unless outside forces act upon it. This theory allows space shuttles to orbit Earth. They are going a certain speed tangentially with Earth's surface, and Earth's gravity continually pulls them "down," but because they are moving at a horizontal speed, they remain up at the same altitude indefinitely unless purposefully brought down.
Kinetic energy is what allows us to move out of bed in the morning, get in the car and drive to work, and a space shuttle to orbit the planet. Without it, we would be unable to move, to think, to live. The universe would be a dead place, dark because light could not move, cold because heat could not move.
