Now why is this a big deal? The speed of light is the ultimate speed; it's impossible for anything to go faster than the speed of light according to the laws of physics. Most of the fundamental laws of physics are based of this fact. This idea was introduced in the early 20th century by Albert Einstein. According to Einstein's theory of special relativity: as you approach the speed of light, time slows down, you become heavier, and you you become flatter. But if there was the possibility of traveling faster than the speed of light then the impossible happens: time goes backwards, you are lighter than nothing, and you have a negative width. This is why people relate relativity and light speed with time travel. I think this is totally bogus and is just shrouded in pretty looking math equations.
I personally dislike Einstein's theories of relativity, so I am VERY excited about this news. I always talked about writing my dissertation to disprove his theories, but that could take a while :). The experiment is being reproduced in a couple other labs in the US and Japan to get the most accurate results and confirm that there were no errors. If they are right, then this will cause all physics books to be rewritten. This can break a lot physics and take us back quite a bit :)
What do you think about this awesome (hopefully true) discovery?
BTW, Speed of light = c = 3*10^8 meters/second = 186,000 miles/second...REALLY FAST
As my idol stated so long ago:
"Einsteins relativity work is a magnificent mathematical garb which fascinates, dazzles and makes people blind to the underlying errors. The theory is like a beggar clothed in purple whom ignorant people take for a king... its exponents are brilliant men but they are metaphysicists rather than scientists." ~Nikola Tesla
It seems likely that this study is accurate given that the technology used to determine the time in which the neutrinos covered their determined distance is only has a 10 nanosecond inaccuracy. What i don't understand is how does this really change physics. All that would change is the point of reference that is considered top speed would change a bit. With the difference in the new speed wouldnt calculations change only by negligable amounts?
ReplyDeleteKyle Green
If this research was accurate, it would be amazing to think that some years from now, there's a possibility that technology can be developed to travel to the past or future. This is what our entire generation has been waiting for!
ReplyDeleteSo if this finding is confirmed, would neutrinos technically be considered tachyon particles? :D
ReplyDeleteIf so, I'm pretty excited about hyperspace travel!
I did read about a good point someone made: if faster-than-light neutrinos did exist, why haven't they have been detected in nature before now? For example, the protons and neutrinos that reached Earth in 1987 from an exploding star were detected at the same time; shouldn't the neutrinos have arrived well before the protons?
How exactly would this discovery relate to String Theory? Don't the five superstring theories reject the existence of tachyons? I'm finding mixed information about that.
I may be making quite a jump, but it seems that this discovery would more strongly support the original Bosonic string theory, which accepted tachyons...
This is a really interesting article. Thanks for posting. Crazy to think about
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting article. Thanks for posting. Crazy to think about
ReplyDeleteThis new discovery is pretty interesting and quite complicated to say the least. The article said that they "clocked the neutrino beam," but how would they really measure that the neutrinos are traveling faster than light? Would they measure it the same way they measure the speed of light?
ReplyDeleteWow! Being a first-time Physics students, this is really mind-blowing and somewhat overwhelming! If the experiments prove this finding to be true, does that mean that everything we are learning and what people have learned from the past is completely wrong? Will even the most successful and extraordinary physics teachers have to go back to a new and improved physics class again to relearn what the experiments are proving?
ReplyDeleteShandale McKay:
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting article. Its crazy to think that some of the things that we are learning now could be wrong.
Just saw another article relating to this. This seriously would change everything if it is proven. Makes you question everything we learn!
ReplyDeleteKelsey Irvine:
ReplyDeleteBest post of the entire blog-hands down. I really hope this research proves true. This is exactly why I love science, it's always changing and proving someone else wrong. Just when you think you've got something figured out a whole new door opens. I hope this will help keep NASA in funding.
I agree with Kyle. I don't think this discovery would change physics. It would add to what we currently know. It would not change the validity of the theories that already exisit, it would change the context of those theories.
ReplyDeleteJessica Lang
It is amazing how the sciences are continually evolving. If in fact neutrinos travel faster than the speed of light, how could this be used to advance our society? Maybe it will affect travel or communication.
ReplyDeleteThe discovery is amazing but measuring it would be difficult and wouldn't have a major uncertainty.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this article I googled it and read another article... this stuff really messes with our minds.
ReplyDelete- Tulsi Patel