Faster Than The Speed Of Light?

[Michaelangelica]

 

Faster than the Speed of Light?

2011Science10 CommentsIn September 2011, an international group of scientists has made an astonishing claim – they have detected particles that seemed to travel faster than the speed of light.

 

It was a claim that contradicted more than a hundred years of scientific orthodoxy. Suddenly there was talk of all kinds of bizarre concepts, from time travel to parallel universes.

 

So what is going on? Has Einstein’s famous theory of relativity finally met its match? Will we one day be able to travel into the past or even into another universe?

 

In this film, Professor Marcus du Sautoy explores one of the most dramatic scientific announcements for a generation. In clear, simple language he tells the story of the science we thought we knew, how it is being challenged, and why it matters.

 

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/faster-than-the-speed-of-light/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TopDocumentaryFilms+%28Top+Documentary+Films+-+Watch+Free+Documentaries+Online%29

 

 

[CraigD]

We’ve been discussing this for a couple of weeks, if in a somewhat less brilliantly effective way than award-winning science communicator Marcus du Sautoy’s video (well, Qfwfq’s style is pretty catchy ;)), in the thread What Travels Faster Than What?.

 

The past decade has seen at least a couple of potential lightspeed limit/causation violation candidates, none having much lasting effect on the classical mechanical side of foundations of modern physics – that is, the theory of relativity. I’m intuitively welcoming of the possibility, as I see it, vaguely, as an inevitable consequence of the other side of modern physics – quantum mechanics – and as I’d really love to avoid present day computing bottlenecks by having a computer that can spawn processes into its own past. :)

 

I’ve only just now heard of du Sautoy. He sounds like a wonderful science popularizer. I look forward, when I get enough consecutive moments in a row, to listening to this thread’s video. Thanks, Michael.

[Lancewen]

Quantum entanglement

Implies FTL communication. Call it spooky if you want, but the fact that it happens over distance at FTL speed impresses the hell out of me. If something can act at FTL, then why not other things?

[Michaelangelica]

Barman says "We don't serve neutrinos here!"

A neutrino walks into a bar.

[Deepwater6]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15830844

 

A BBC article doubting the claim.

[Qfwfq]

A BBC article doubting the claim.

One of many.

 

Yes, I had seen that argument lately and it is a relevant point. Not that I undertook a quantitative analysis to vouch for it. There is also someone on the internet who suggests a trivial error in their use of a FORTRAN program for computing the exact distance but I doubt that both metrology institutes who checked this measurement could have overlooked that matter. There is of course the SN1987A observation, though I suggested a conjecture about that, for the event of the OPERA result being definitely confirmed.

 

In any case I doubt that it violates SR, I'm more inclined to view it (if it doesn't turn out to be an error) as the photon travelling at not quite the speed of ligh.... er, not quite [imath]c[/imath] so, no, don't get your hopes up about time travel. Craig if that were possible there would be better uses than spawning darn processes on darn computers. :P