'We have broken speed of light'

Telegraph ^ | 8/16/07 | Nick Fleming

[LibWhacker]

A pair of German physicists claim to have broken the speed of light - an achievement that would undermine our entire understanding of space and time.

According to Einstein's special theory of relativity, it would require an infinite amount of energy to propel an object at more than 186,000 miles per second.

However, Dr Gunter Nimtz and Dr Alfons Stahlhofen, of the University of Koblenz, say they may have breached a key tenet of that theory.

The pair say they have conducted an experiment in which microwave photons - energetic packets of light - travelled "instantaneously" between a pair of prisms that had been moved up to 3ft apart.

Being able to travel faster than the speed of light would lead to a wide variety of bizarre consequences.

For instance, an astronaut moving faster than it would theoretically arrive at a destination before leaving.

The scientists were investigating a phenomenon called quantum tunnelling, which allows sub-atomic particles to break apparently unbreakable laws.

Dr Nimtz told New Scientist magazine: "For the time being, this is the only violation of special relativity that I know of."

[brownsfan]

"Theres a book called Faster Than Light written by a noted physicsist, which is pretty good."

Yeah, and if it contains discussions such as:

"In a relativistic four (three spatial, one time) dimensional universe sure...in a quantum, multi-dimensional, universe relativistic physics can change in application. The speed of light in higher dimensions could be faster than that in our dimensional space."

My head would explode reading it.

[M Kehoe]

BAH! I did it in 1973 to the same music!

Yeah, but back then it was better time travel through better chemistry.

;^)

5.56mm

[From One - Many]

Maybe their clock runs backwards?

[caveat emptor]

Dumb question alert: why is the speed of LIGHT specifically supposedly the ceiling on speed?

Michelson–Morley.

[r9etb]

As one who earns a living off lightwave and lasers, I say “Hogwash!”

I seem to recall that Rutherford said much the same thing about Einstein's theory....

[Red Badger]

Until they can “tag” or “mark” or otherwise identify ONE photon, from amongst trillions of others, and verify that the photon received is the same one that was transmitted, I’ll remain skeptical.....................

[lepton]

E^2 = m^2*c^4 + p^2*c^2

Ummm. What does “p” represent? something to do with momentum...

[dooltotheend]

Personally I think this another scheme by Hitler to win WWII.

[70times7]

Do photons have mass?

Well, if you want to be particular about it, yes and no.

[Redleg Duke]

Now, break the speed of dark!

[Red Badger]

Very interesting if true and we do know that nobody (AFAIK) has ever detected a gravity wave.

Just watch Hillary! walk into a room full of liberals and watch the effect of everyone being drawn to her...............

[Old Professer]

” Their photons have just duplicated the behavior of Leptons that have a nasty habit of appearing at two places simultaneously; i.e. - go from one universe to another.”

This is why it’s a waste of time to put dog-tags on them.

[TommyDale]

"I seem to recall that Rutherford said much the same thing about Einstein's theory.... "

Like I said earlier, if they truly “broke the speed of light” then the light arrived before it even left the point of origin. Totally impossible.

[Corin Stormhands]

Warp speed ahead.

Way ahead of schedule. We don't make First Contact for another 56 years. After WWIII.

[zencat]

Last I heard they had something called “mass equivalence”. Yeah, I know it’s a fuzzy term, but gravity does act on photons to bend light, with gravity being the attractive force between two “masses”.

It all makes me dizzy after thinking about it too long.

[John123]

For instance, an astronaut moving faster than it would theoretically arrive at a destination before leaving.

Oh that's nothing new. Democrats have been doing that for years...

[Post-Neolithic]

I read somewhere that “Science Fiction is the history of the future”. Truer words were never said.

[windcliff]

ping

[Paradox]

Speed of dark? Lookie here.

[agere_contra]

The link in post #106 also deals with the 10 Billion c lower limit for the speed of propagation of gravity.

The text also clarifies a common confusion - which I used to labour under - between the speed of gravity, and the speed of gravitons (which do move at c, do not progagate gravity, and seem to be a product of heavy masses in close orbital motion.)