gorocks99
Posts: 10,760
Sep 22, 2011 5:48pm
I do stress may because there's probably a billion things that could have been just barely off and given a false reading: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/8782895/CERN-scientists-break-the-speed-of-light.html
Antonio Ereditato, spokesman for the international group of researchers, said that measurements taken over three years showed neutrinos pumped from CERN near Geneva to Gran Sasso in Italy had arrived 60 nanoseconds quicker than light would have done.
"We have high confidence in our results. We have checked and rechecked for anything that could have distorted our measurements but we found nothing," he said. "We now want colleagues to check them independently."
If confirmed, the discovery would undermine Albert Einstein's 1905 theory of special relativity, which says that the speed of light is a "cosmic constant" and that nothing in the universe can travel faster.
sleeper
Posts: 27,879
Sep 22, 2011 5:50pm
Pretty cool.
justincredible
Posts: 32,056
Sep 22, 2011 5:50pm
I've heard that ernest "finishes" faster than the speed of light so Einstein's theory of special relativity has already been undermined long ago.
justincredible
Posts: 32,056
Sep 22, 2011 5:51pm
But for serious, I hope the numbers all check out. This would be awesome.
majorspark
Posts: 5,122
Sep 22, 2011 5:52pm
justincredible
Posts: 32,056
Sep 22, 2011 5:54pm
I see your warp speed and raise you ludicrous speed.majorspark;907122 wrote:
Glory Days
Posts: 7,809
Sep 22, 2011 7:47pm
yeah....but so what?
chicago510
Posts: 5,728
Sep 22, 2011 7:49pm
Changes everything, really. So many physical calculations are based on the speed of light (c=3x10^8 m/s) being the absolute maximum possible speed matter can travel.Glory Days;907260 wrote:yeah....but so what?
2kool4skool
Posts: 1,804
Sep 22, 2011 8:11pm
Glory Days;907260 wrote:yeah....but so what?
G
gut
Posts: 15,058
Sep 22, 2011 8:19pm
60 nanoseconds faster than 300M meters per second? What is that, like .000000000000000000000000000000000000001% error?
ernest_t_bass
Posts: 24,984
Sep 22, 2011 8:23pm
justincredible;907119 wrote:I've heard that ernest "finishes" faster than the speed of light so Einstein's theory of special relativity has already been undermined long ago.
What the fuck is this shit!?
redstreak one
Posts: 1,152
Sep 22, 2011 8:26pm
This is old news, just check out the thread on 40 times on here. We have 4 or 5 guys that run at the speed of light! 
Glory Days
Posts: 7,809
Sep 22, 2011 8:51pm
yeah....but so what? nothing in our everyday life will change, especially in our lifetime with this new discovery.chicago510;907262 wrote:Changes everything, really. So many physical calculations are based on the speed of light (c=3x10^8 m/s) being the absolute maximum possible speed matter can travel.
chicago510
Posts: 5,728
Sep 22, 2011 9:11pm
I'm no particle physicist, I only took a year in undergrad, but Einstein theorized that things that traveled faster than the speed of light could travel through time, previously thought to be impossible.Glory Days;907355 wrote:yeah....but so what? nothing in our everyday life will change, especially in our lifetime with this new discovery.
I agree that it won't have tangible impact on human life anytime soon, but the theory of relativity changed the world, e=mc^2 defines the reason that nuclear power can be generated, and if this finding is true then we may find new equations that change things.
Quotes from the physicists:
Even this small deviation would open up the possibility of time travel and play havoc with longstanding notions of cause and effect. Einstein himself — the author of modern physics, whose theory of relativity established the speed of light as the ultimate limit — said that if you could send a message faster than light, “You could send a telegram to the past.”Alvaro DeRejula, a theorist at CERN, called the claim “flabbergasting.”
“If it is true, then we truly haven’t understood anything about anything,” he said, adding: “It looks too big to be true. The correct attitude is to ask oneself what went wrong.”
B
berry
Posts: 475
Sep 22, 2011 10:35pm
Hard to believe they calculated based on hand held timing. The FAT readings will show a slower speed and clear up any confusion.
ManO'War
Posts: 1,420
Sep 22, 2011 11:30pm
And they would have to factor in the wind effect.
J
jmog
Posts: 6,567
Sep 23, 2011 12:59am
Pretty interesting stuff.
The particle/Einstein/modern physics class I took as an undergrad was one of the most interesting classes I took as an engineer.
The particle/Einstein/modern physics class I took as an undergrad was one of the most interesting classes I took as an engineer.
dwccrew
Posts: 7,817
Sep 23, 2011 1:35am
Only with his students.justincredible;907119 wrote:I've heard that ernest "finishes" faster than the speed of light so Einstein's theory of special relativity has already been undermined long ago.
hoops23
Posts: 15,696
Sep 23, 2011 3:03am
Yep, very interesting find, indeed. Hope the #'s check out.chicago510;907377 wrote:I'm no particle physicist, I only took a year in undergrad, but Einstein theorized that things that traveled faster than the speed of light could travel through time, previously thought to be impossible.
I agree that it won't have tangible impact on human life anytime soon, but the theory of relativity changed the world, e=mc^2 defines the reason that nuclear power can be generated, and if this finding is true then we may find new equations that change things.
Quotes from the physicists:
ernest_t_bass
Posts: 24,984
Sep 23, 2011 6:52am
ManO'War;907544 wrote:And they would have to factor in the wind effect.
Lol
Glory Days
Posts: 7,809
Sep 23, 2011 7:17am
still only just theories. if these particle thingys traveled faster than the speed of light, did they actually end up in the past?chicago510;907377 wrote:I'm no particle physicist, I only took a year in undergrad, but Einstein theorized that things that traveled faster than the speed of light could travel through time, previously thought to be impossible.
I agree that it won't have tangible impact on human life anytime soon, but the theory of relativity changed the world, e=mc^2 defines the reason that nuclear power can be generated, and if this finding is true then we may find new equations that change things.
P
Polar Bear 73
Posts: 216
Sep 23, 2011 7:32am
Yeah, but the guy doing the timing had 5 cups of coffee, so he was really, really fast with the stop watch.berry;907489 wrote:Hard to believe they calculated based on hand held timing. The FAT readings will show a slower speed and clear up any confusion.