Speed of Light Barrier

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Speed of light barrier? First you are making the assumption that the speed of light is a constant - which it is not.
Constant cannot be sped up or slowed down under any condition. For this reason the speed of sound is not constant as it travels faster or slower dependent on the medium through which it travels. Even that air temp. can affect sound speed.

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Researchers have been able to slow light to 38 mph

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Physicists Slow Speed of Light – Harvard Gazette

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I would now submit that the speed of light is not a constant.

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Perhaps you are beings confused by the somewhat ambiguous terminology that we use. When we say "speed of light", we are usually being a bit sloppy. What we usually mean is "speed of light in a vacuum," which we designate by the constant c. And when we speak of the "speed of light" as constant, we always are referring to c, the speed of light in a vacuum. The speed of light in a medium (i.e. not in vacuum) is always slower than it is in vacuum.

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Actually, the speed of light is always c. In a medium such as glass the photons are absorbed and re-emitted by the molecules, and the extra time this takes is responsible for the perceived lower speed. In between molecules the photons still travel at c.
c is actually a measure of the fastest speed one part of the universe can influence another part. Two objects a light year apart cannot affect one another any sooner than a year. And for Tedrick's benefit, even if they're receding from one another, each will measure light from the other as traveling at c.

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--Percy

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Yes, you are correct when light is viewed as particles. But in experimental and applied fields of physics we often view light as waves whose speed changes according to the index of refraction of the medium. (And this is how the term was used in the article that Tedrick referenced.) To be more clear, we should probably call this an "effective" speed of light.Edited by kbertsche, : No reason given.Edited by kbertsche, : Added particle/wave language.

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I would imagine no one is working on that particular equation. The speed of light is not constant and does not have a universal barrier. Nor does sound for that matter - it has a barrier at a certain temp., pressure, and is all dependent on the medium. As is light.

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Nonsense. In high vacuum, the mean free path of a photon is 100s of km. I.e. a photon will travel for 100's of km without any interaction with the "medium." Light does not need a medium to travel.

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I did not state light needed a medium to travel. I stated that we know that its speed is dependant on the density of the medium it travels through.
The less dense the medium the faster the speed.

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You seem to be missing the point. If light can travel for 100's of km without any interaction at all with the medium, it is essentially traveling with no medium.

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If light can travel 100s of km without touching anything in space. And with only a couple hundred atoms per cubic centimeter that might could happen. Math could find the liklihood of this if you had the time and wanted to find how many hydrogen atoms can fit into a cubic centimeter ran against how many cm light has to travel. You could come up with the percentage risk for impact through space for photons.

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If you really wanted to do some math you could inversely figure how much light could be sped up by a entirely rare medium. Absolute space with zero interference. If we know how to slow it down - we also know what could be done to speed it up.

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Yes, this is easily calculated. It is a simple, basic physics problem. I have already given you a link to the pertinent equations.