Speed of light broken!

[Raph's Girl]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/08/16/scispeed116.xml

A pair of German physicists claim to have broken the speed of light - an achievement that would undermine our entire understanding of space and time.

According to Einstein's special theory of relativity, it would require an infinite amount of energy to propel an object at more than 186,000 miles per second.

However, Dr Gunter Nimtz and Dr Alfons Stahlhofen, of the University of Koblenz, say they may have breached a key tenet of that theory.

The pair say they have conducted an experiment in which microwave photons - energetic packets of light - travelled "instantaneously" between a pair of prisms that had been moved up to 3ft apart.

Being able to travel faster than the speed of light would lead to a wide variety of bizarre consequences.

For instance, an astronaut moving faster than it would theoretically arrive at a destination before leaving.

The scientists were investigating a phenomenon called quantum tunnelling, which allows sub-atomic particles to break apparently unbreakable laws.

Dr Nimtz told New Scientist magazine: "For the time being, this is the only violation of special relativity that I know of."

[Ecto Jedi]

Being able to travel faster than the speed of light would lead to a wide variety of bizarre consequences.

For instance, an astronaut moving faster than it would theoretically arrive at a destination before leaving.

Now that'll bake your noodle.

[Revan]

For instance, an astronaut moving faster than it would theoretically arrive at a destination before leaving.


My head hurts just thinking about it.

[愛]

This is amazing news. I was just reading about this recently. Being a future physicist, myself, I find this to be a wonderful discovery. I'm excited to learn more about this. :)

[Voltron]

When I heard that the Germans found something faster than the speed of light, I was POSITIVE it was the French army in full retreat.

[Cure]

Time travel FTW?

[Ecto Jedi]

When I heard that the Germans found something faster than the speed of light, I was POSITIVE it was the French army in full retreat.

That deserves applause.

[Raph's Girl]

When I heard that the Germans found something faster than the speed of light, I was POSITIVE it was the French army in full retreat.

:lol: *rotflmao* :lol:

Voltron: If there was a FTW Award, you'd win it hands down. :lol:

[ThirdMarioBro]

Einstein...what a n00b.

[CudleyCowlick]

Once more, science fiction becomes FACT. It's a neat world.

[Leogeddon]

i thought you would die just going mach 3... people with weak hearts should not ride this ride, please keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times... you'd probably respect that rule from now on.

[Revan]

Einstein...what a n00b.

:lol: n00b:lol:

[Scandia]

How could this be? Is that physically possible? Will humans (or at least matter) be able to tesseract to other places instantaneously? How about traveling backwards or forwards into time?

And how come I am seeing this first here and not in the headline news?

[Sewer Bull]

And how come I am seeing this first here and not in the headline news?

Amen to that. This can't be seen anywhere safe for Telegraph. I believe it's just a scientific hoax.

[Janus Prospero]

Sorry to say guys, this is just media hype and misdirection by blowing something way out of proportion. Oddly enough, one of my best friends has a PhD in particle physics and works at CERN.

I sent him this article and here is what he had to say:

This curious effect of quantum tunneling, producing a group velocity of light greater than c is quite old now. Whilst still a neat thing to study, the "front velocity" of the wavepacket does not exceed c, and the technique does not allow you to transfer information at a speed greater than c (so relativity is not violated). If they do eventually find some sort of physical effects outside relativity, it'd be pretty cool though.

I was like, "Huh?"

And he pointed me to this analogy in the wikipedia article of the Speed of Light (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_Light#.22Faster-than-light.22_observations_and_experiments).
Exceeding the group velocity of light in this manner is comparable to exceeding the speed of sound by arranging people distantly spaced in a line, and asking them all to shout "I'm here!", one after another with short intervals, each one timing it by looking at their own wristwatch so they don't have to wait until they hear the previous person shouting.

So, while it appears that "I'm here!" is traveling faster than the speed of sound from point A to point B, it's just an illusion because they all had knowledge of the information beforehand. It would therefore be impossible to practically send a message between those two points as the message is limited by the speed of sound. Each person, not knowing what the message would be, would have to wait for the message to get to them before passing it on.

This quantum tunneling example is also an illusion in the same manner.

Sorry guys, Einstein pwns us all.

[Dr. Doom]

This is amazing news. I was just reading about this recently. Being a future physicist, myself, I find this to be a wonderful discovery. I'm excited to learn more about this. :)

You're not gonna be a physicist. You're gonna move to Japan and become a doctor of pediatrics.

[Ecto Jedi]

How could this be? Is that physically possible? Will humans (or at least matter) be able to tesseract to other places instantaneously? How about traveling backwards or forwards into time?

Tess...Eract?

[Mecha Cow]

Tess...Eract?
I don't get it either (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tesseract).

[Scandia]

I was referencing "A Wrinkle In Time". A tesseract was what people did to go from one place to another instantly without having to go the distance.

[Aignatius]

Hm. I thought they'd done that a number of years ago. That's when I first heard about it. So, it's rather confusing that they'd mention this now.

Tell you what, I'm waiting for the Hadron Collider to be in operation. They were delayed because of a support beam failure. Or something like that... might start up in September of this year.

[Jester]

Germany has acheived Warp One.....sorry Trekkie.

But that's cool...I wonder if the Docs were Trekers, too.

[Ecto Jedi]

Tell you what, I'm waiting for the Hadron Collider to be in operation. They were delayed because of a support beam failure. Or something like that... might start up in September of this year.

Hadron...Collider?

[KROW]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/08/16/scispeed116.xml

A pair of German physicists claim to have broken the speed of light - an achievement that would undermine our entire understanding of space and time.

According to Einstein's special theory of relativity, it would require an infinite amount of energy to propel an object at more than 186,000 miles per second.

However, Dr Gunter Nimtz and Dr Alfons Stahlhofen, of the University of Koblenz, say they may have breached a key tenet of that theory.

The pair say they have conducted an experiment in which microwave photons - energetic packets of light - travelled "instantaneously" between a pair of prisms that had been moved up to 3ft apart.

Being able to travel faster than the speed of light would lead to a wide variety of bizarre consequences.

For instance, an astronaut moving faster than it would theoretically arrive at a destination before leaving.

The scientists were investigating a phenomenon called quantum tunnelling, which allows sub-atomic particles to break apparently unbreakable laws.

Dr Nimtz told New Scientist magazine: "For the time being, this is the only violation of special relativity that I know of."

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v521/BJKROW/sam.jpg
"Oh, boy."

[Time Mistress]

Well, Einstein always said that if you COULD travel faster than the speed of light you would end up time traveling somehow. So I guess that French army would be coming and going at the same time.;)