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Was Einstein wrong all along? Controversial theory suggests the speed of light is SLOWER...
dailymail.co.uk ^ | : 06:57 EST, 27 June 2014 | Ellie Zolfagharifard

Posted on 06/28/2014 12:14:35 PM PDT by BenLurkin

The University of Maryland physicist believes the delay could have been because the light was in fact slowed as it travelled due to something known as 'vacuum polarisation'.

During this phenomenon, photons break down to something known as ‘positrons’ and electrons for a split second. before combining together again.

When they split, quantum mechanics creates a gravitational potential between the pair of ‘virtual’ particles.

Dr Franson argues that the process might have a gradual impact on the speed of the photon, meaning that over 168,000 light years, the photons may have suffered a near five-hour delay.

If the physicist is correct, it means scientists have to recalculate everything from our distance to the sun to some of the most distant objects seen in other galaxies.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: freakstate; haltonarp; kludge; speedoflight; stringtheory; vacuumpolarisation
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To: SpaceBar

I can’t comprehend this stuff. However, it brings to mind Petr Beckman. He was a great, Hungarian mad scientist type who was a leading anti-communist writer back in the Reagan era. A real character. He took a lot of heat for questioning Einstein’s Theory. I hope this makes people take time to remember him.


21 posted on 06/28/2014 12:46:58 PM PDT by Forgotten Amendments (Peace On Earth! Purity of Essence! McCain/Ripper 2016)
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To: Forgotten Amendments

Einstein was a true theoretical physicist. I have no doubt that he would welcome challenges to his theories.


22 posted on 06/28/2014 12:50:00 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin.)
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To: BenLurkin
I think it will be shown that the early Buddhists had it closest (I'm talking here not about pop-Buddhism with all it's silly compassion - I mean the hard core epistemology.)
  1. No Space
  2. No Time
  3. Therefore no speed nor distance since each depend on the former two.
  4. The so called 'multi-verse' is like saying 'how many points on a line' ... that is, there are in fact no points, and yet there is the continuum - and so the notion that there are infinity points. So, It's not that there are infinity universes, is that none occupies time or space, there are neither zero, nor one, nor many.

It's actually not, I think, contrary to what 'God' points to. There was a time when to even say His name at all - to utter it or even to conceive it - was a spiritual mistake ('sin' when it means, as it originally did, 'to miss the mark,' since all 'name and form' occupy time and space.) It wasn't that God occupied ALL time and space, or that all time and space was within the bounds of God, it's that there really is no time, nor space, yet: what is, is. Or: "It is only, it is."

That is why, I think we will see all the Quantum work approach, but never touch, the same roadblock Einstein never touched, but approached -> Like a cleat on a sailboat, the more progress you make pulling the rope through, the tighter the cleat, until the clamp force becomes infinite before the rope is through.

It's also why the universe only appears to manifest when observed. Because that is only when it manifests. Particles only take position when paired with attention.

When St. Augustine said "Whatever is exposed to the light, itself becomes the light." ... This light was not the 'light' we think of as in a flash light, nor the 'Light of God' we may conceive-> it was 'awareness.' (Many would argue that IS the light of God - awareness itself.)

So, no distance, no speed, because no space, no time ... and the appearance of the universe only as a phenomena with neither subject nor object. No witness, nothing to witness.

Not sure that will get Obama impeached this week.

That's been bouncing around my head for a couple years, and I guess this post on Einstein made it finally bounce out.

23 posted on 06/28/2014 12:54:38 PM PDT by tinyowl (A equals A)
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To: BenLurkin

Absurd over-sensationalistic headline. I guess if 20th century physics were arising in a context of 21st century journalistic sensationalism, we’d be treated to headlines like “Newton Wrong Speed of Light Finite!” and the like.

Everyone reasonably conversant in physics knows that both general relativity and quantum mechanics must both be “wrong” in the sense of being only approximately correct, since the real theory of physics must be both relativistic and quantum mechanical, and general relativity is a classical theory, while we are only able to do the calculations of quantum mechanics in a non-relativistic background.

I wonder how much of the anomalies the speculative surmises of “dark matter” and “dark energy” are supposed to address can be fixed just by quantum corrections to general relativity. Beyond the massive neutrinos there may be no mysterious “dark matter” at all, ditto for “dark energy” since we still need what Einstein meant by a “grand unified theory” incorporating both gravity and the other forces in one description. And a description which must be quantum mechanical. It you want an “Einstein was wrong” headline, the really important basis for one came a while ago when it was confirmed that physical reality violates Bell’s Inequalities, and therefore cannot be describe by a classical local hidden variable theory of the sort Einstein thought should underlie and replace quantum mechanics.


24 posted on 06/28/2014 12:59:38 PM PDT by The_Reader_David (And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know...)
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To: SpaceBar
Placing my bet on the old patent clerk

Me too. But it's good to see that "settled science" is being challenged (are you listening, Al Gore?).

Having said that, objections to Relativity have always followed a two-step process:

Step 1: A scientist discovers a flaw in Einstein's work.
Step 2: (weeks later) The scientist finds an error in his own work. Einstein was right after all.

25 posted on 06/28/2014 1:03:12 PM PDT by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: BenLurkin; All

Beware of the super-genius Einstein created by media as opposed to the real Einstein who occasionally made conceptual errors like everybody else.


26 posted on 06/28/2014 1:03:35 PM PDT by Amendment10
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To: BenLurkin

Great. Now I have to start worrying about how close those black holes are all over again.


27 posted on 06/28/2014 1:04:20 PM PDT by VeniVidiVici (Melowese Richardson - Democrat Vote Fraud Expert)
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To: BenLurkin

Well ever try beating it into bed from the wall switch


28 posted on 06/28/2014 1:05:25 PM PDT by al baby (Hi MomÂ…)
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To: VitacoreVision

“Einstein was wrong about the speed of light being constant at least. “

Einstein is STILL right. The fact that when light interacts with matter it slows down is a common fact for every high school science student. The links talk about space being filled with ‘matter’ which light interacts with, thus slowing down.


29 posted on 06/28/2014 1:05:45 PM PDT by TexasGator
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To: GeronL

What about the things in the passenger side mirror?


30 posted on 06/28/2014 1:06:35 PM PDT by al baby (Hi MomÂ…)
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To: mikrofon
 photo Albertandfriends.jpg
31 posted on 06/28/2014 1:10:37 PM PDT by gorush (History repeats itself because human nature is static)
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To: cripplecreek
Einstein was a true theoretical physicist. I have no doubt that he would welcome challenges to his theories.

Absolutely! Beckman just offended the "settled science" Gorean crowd of the day. If I remember right, he admired Einstein, just disagreed with his TOR. He was aggressively pro-nuke in the '70s and of course, any anti-communist was trashed back then. This weenie is still bitter:

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Petr_Beckmann

32 posted on 06/28/2014 1:12:23 PM PDT by Forgotten Amendments (Peace On Earth! Purity of Essence! McCain/Ripper 2016)
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To: BenLurkin

The debate is over. This is settled science. The deniers should be jailed.


33 posted on 06/28/2014 1:15:37 PM PDT by Senator_Blutarski
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To: BenLurkin

Maybe the light stopped off for a Light.


34 posted on 06/28/2014 1:17:03 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: mikrofon

It’s threads like these that remind me how much I miss the contributions of FReeper Boris (RIP).


35 posted on 06/28/2014 1:22:26 PM PDT by Ezekiel (All who mourn the destruction of America merit the celebration of her rebirth.)
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To: al baby

Some galaxies may be closer than they appear


36 posted on 06/28/2014 1:25:07 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: Eddie01

we need an improbability drive!


37 posted on 06/28/2014 1:25:50 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: tinyowl

“there are neither zero, nor one, nor many.”

http://www.johnspeedie.com/healy/saywhat.wav


38 posted on 06/28/2014 1:26:22 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: cripplecreek

too many zeroes


39 posted on 06/28/2014 1:26:31 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: Larry Lucido

Well, yeah...it tastes great.

Or is it... less filling?


40 posted on 06/28/2014 1:27:25 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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