why can’t a particle with rest mass accelerate to the speed of light

Question

I assume this has something to do with general relativity, but i don’t exactly get it so

In: Planetary Science

Answer 1

E=(mc^2)/(1-(v^2/c^2))

Here’s the special relativity energy equation, which will Taylor expand giving E= mc^2 + 1/2 mv^2 + ……..

As v approaches c, the denominator of the fraction in the equation gets smaller. The energy keeps increasing such that you would need an infinite amount of energy to actually reach the speed of light.