Speed of Light Defeated? Einstein Proven Wrong??

[Holy Schnikes]

Apparently scientists have measured particles traveling faster than the speed of light, data that, if accurate, would disprove Einstein's theory of Special Relativity. Looks like these discoveries are about to be verified by fellow scientists/physicists. Serious implications to our understanding of the universe? Possible time travel?? Let's hope so.

Looks like Doc Brown and Marty Mcfly were onto something...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/ ... CW20110922

[devnulljp]

We'll see ...

[Holy Schnikes]

We'll see ...

I'm thinking they'll end up disproving the data as scientists have been busy testing Einstein's theories for a LONG time now only to discover the guy knew his shit. Still, I'm intrigued.

[snipelfritz]

More importantly, how can these discoveries lead to awesomer effects pedals?

[devnulljp]

We'll see ...

I'm thinking they'll end up disproving the data as scientists have been busy testing Einstein's theories for a LONG time now only to discover the guy knew his shit. Still, I'm intrigued.

True, but he never did wrap his head around quantum mechanics.
My money's on (a) an error or (b) some weird quantum effect or high-dimensional hyperspace thing so it just looks to us like the particles have travelled faster than light or (c) an error

[theavondon]

Either way, color me intrigued.

[Jero]

More importantly, how can these discoveries lead to awesomer effects pedals?

[futuresailors]

I bet they measured the distance incorrectly.

[Gearmond]

iunno, its with quantum particles, so the general rule is "anything that applies to anything else, doesn't apply on this scale"

[Holy Schnikes]

I bet they measured the distance incorrectly.

For real, that's probably exactly what happened. Here's another physicist laying out some facts on the matter:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badas ... gle+Reader

[snipelfritz]

If these neutrinos can travel through the earth, couldn't they take a more direct route(i.e. underground) while photons have to follow the curvature of the earth which, from Switzerland to Italy, isn't very much but might just be enough(like they said 20 meters) to account for the discrepancy?

...but this is coming from a PoliSci/Communications major.

[bigchiefbc]

I am like 99.999999999% sure it's going to come back as being some sort of error. I mean, seriously, a 60-nanosecond difference over the course of 500 miles? That means that they have to know the distance between the two points to within like 18 meters. Good luck with that.

[culturejam]

I mean, seriously, a 60-nanosecond difference over the course of 500 miles? That means that they have to know the distance between the two points to within like 18 meters. Good luck with that.

Maybe I'm just jaded, but 18 meters over 500 miles doesn't sound like a level of precision that can't be accomplished.

I mean, civilian GPS is accurate to about 10 meters. They usually orbit at around 425 miles up, from info I can gather.

I'm just thinking that if my TomTom can pull off 10 meters, CERN probably has something more accurate. Maybe I'm assuming too much?


My big questions is how do you know for certain that the neutrinos passing the end point are the same ones you sent? It's not like you can put a collar on one.

[bigchiefbc]

I mean, seriously, a 60-nanosecond difference over the course of 500 miles? That means that they have to know the distance between the two points to within like 18 meters. Good luck with that.

Maybe I'm just jaded, but 18 meters over 500 miles doesn't sound like a level of precision that can't be accomplished.

I mean, civilian GPS is accurate to about 10 meters. They usually orbit at around 425 miles up, from info I can gather.

I'm just thinking that if my TomTom can pull off 10 meters, CERN probably has something more accurate. Maybe I'm assuming too much?


My big questions is how do you know for certain that the neutrinos passing the end point are the same ones you sent? It's not like you can put a collar on one.

I'm not saying that you couldn't get a GPS reading that you'd be relatively confident in at that range, but that confidence level wouldn't be high enough to overturn a century of physics.

[alexa.]

I bet neutrinos are making trollfaces right about now.