Chinese Physicists Measure Speed of “Spooky Action At a Distance”

Physics arXiv Blog ^ | March 7, 2013 | Physics arXiv Blog

[Bobalu]

Einstein railed against the possibility of spooky action at a distance because it violates relativity. Now Chinese physicists have clocked it traveling more than four orders of magnitude faster than light

[HomeAtLast]

It appears time and space as we perceive them are illusions and we are somehow part of a timeless spaceless eternity. It's spooky stuff.

So, all those pop fizz books I read in the '70s and '80s (Tao of Physics and the like) might be on the right track?

[Gen.Blather]

“At 4Xs the speed of light it will still take 15k years to get from one side of the galaxy to the other. “

The kids are going to nag you the whole way and you’ll have to stop at Betelgeuse to ask for directions.

[Sirius Lee]

At 4Xs the speed of light it will still take 15k years to get from one side of the galaxy to the other.

Voyager 1 is 35 years old. Imagine if we launched a proper robotic probe with a proper engine on it. We would be able to find out which of these "earthlike" planets in our own interstellar neighborhood are truly suitable for colonization.

I'd sign up to found New America - no commies allowed.

[sergeantdave]

ChiComm apes can’t even measure the correct waist size of men’s underwear.

[Andrei Bulba]

I seriously doubt Einstein “railed” against the concept, as opposed to expressing his disagreement.

[Wonder Warthog]

"At 4X's the speed of light it will still take 15k years to get from one side of the galaxy to the other."

Not "4X the speed of light".....four ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE (10,000X) the speed of light. Makes those pesky photons look like aged and decrepit snails.

[FourtySeven]

I do believe our quixotic friend has been zotted... ....or maybe abducted?

[Straight8]

I don’t care who you are, that’s funny right there.

[zeugma]

At 4Xs the speed of light it will still take 15k years to get from one side of the galaxy to the other.

It may just be that the author of the headline is math-challenged, but 4 orders of magnitude would mean 1000x the speed of light. It's still gonna take a while to get from one side of the galaxy to another. Hell, it still would take a long time to travel between stars, but it is more or less doable at that speed, at least for nearby stars, i.e., those within 50 or so light years.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

At 4Xs the speed of light it will still take 15k years to get from one side of the galaxy to the other.

It may just be that the author of the headline is math-challenged, but 4 orders of magnitude would mean 1000x the speed of light. It's still gonna take a while to get from one side of the galaxy to another. Hell, it still would take a long time to travel between stars, but it is more or less doable at that speed, at least for nearby stars, i.e., those within 50 or so light years.

Well, you almost got it; four orders of magnitude is 10,000 times (in round figures). OneWingedShark puts it as 12 hours from one side of the galaxy to the other. Assuming (counter to quantum theory which this experiment does not claim to disprove) that the actual “speed” isn’t infinite.

[zeugma]

Well, you almost got it; four orders of magnitude is 10,000 times (in round figures). OneWingedShark puts it as 12 hours from one side of the galaxy to the other. Assuming (counter to quantum theory which this experiment does not claim to disprove) that the actual “speed” isn’t infinite.

Yeah, should have read the entire thread. Several people pointed that out.

10kc is pretty freaking fast!

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fola80rQop4

As usual Dusty was way ahead of her time!

[OneWingedShark]

In other words this is “Warp 4” in Star Trek speak

Maybe; I seem to recall that the definition of 'warp' changed between TOS and TNG, certainly in Voyager.
Reason: I recall the Enterprise in TOS being hit with an energy wave traveling "Warp 20".
In TNG I don't recall any 10+ Warp speed (off the top of my head).
In Voyager they explicitly state there's a Warp 10 speed-limit, with 10 being equal to infinite speed.

[ZX12R]

So, they didn't measure it directly, but set up and experiment that could measure it, if it were 10,000 times or less, faster than the sol.

It's a similar situation trying to determine the diameter of an electron. They have no idea what diameter they are, but they've probed to the extent that our technology is currently capable, and it's still smaller than that.

[OneWingedShark]

Well, you almost got it; four orders of magnitude is 10,000 times (in round figures). OneWingedShark puts it as 12 hours from one side of the galaxy to the other. Assuming (counter to quantum theory which this experiment does not claim to disprove) that the actual “speed” isn’t infinite.

Given "the Milky Way is roughly 34 kpc (110,000 light-years) across", [Source] it would take 11 years* to traverse the Galagy edge-to-edge (w/ straight-line travel), so that's really not too bad.

* -- 110,000 Light-Years (10,000 Light) = 11 Years.

[steve86]

Could it be that traveling via some higher dimension(s) the distance is only 1/10,000 as far (or less)? In other words, the standard lower dimensions take a really roundabout path to get there.

[steve86]

Wouldn’t it be something if, as viewed through higher dimensions, that all points in the universe were adjacent to one another, or better yet, superimposed? The ultimate unity.

[dfwgator]

[TigersEye]

It will be a lot! lol

[TigersEye]

That wouldn’t surprise me at all truthfully. One avenue of thought is that mind can be anywhere at all instantly. Of course that doesn’t take the body to the far end of the universe but given how unfriendly most of it out there is to squishy little bags of water that’s probably for the best.