Faster Than Light:
Superluminal Loopholes
in Physics
by Nick Herbert
Posted on 08/16/2007 10:15:43 AM PDT by 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."
“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.”
Once again demonstrating that reporters have no basic understanding of science or logic.
They wouldn’t arrive at the destination before leaving. They’d arrive at thier destination before the IMAGE of them leaving did.
No, it sounds what you are doing is unleashing epicycles, in the form of alternative universes and extra dimensions, in order to explain this universe.
Will Spacecraft ever Go Faster than the speed of Light?
Various - See Text | 16 FEB 2003 | Various
Posted on 02/16/2003 5:16:44 PM EST by vannrox
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/844807/posts
Is Faster Than Light Travel or Communication Possible?
Original by Philip Gibbs 1997
Updated 1998 by PEG [interesting dating, no?]
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SpeedOfLight/FTL.html
[dead link]
Forget Rocket Ships. TELEPORT!
A physicist writes as if the technology for moving people is already here
By Sarah Goforth
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/fyi/article/0,20967,1021318,00.html
www.bearfabrique.org/Catastrophism/WALLSAN.TXTSansbury is a quiet spoken physicist from Connecticut. He is associated with the Classical Physics Institute, or CP Institute, of New York which publishes the Journal of Classical Physics. Sansbury's was a thousand dollar experiment using 10 nanosecond long pulses of laser light, one pulse every 400 nsec. At some distance from the laser was a photodiode detector. But in the light path, directly in front of the detector was a high speed electronic shutter (known as a Pockel cell) which could be switched to allow the laser light through to the detector, or stop it.
by Wall ThornhillBreaking the Light BarrierIn the most striking of the new experiments a pulse of light that enters a transparent chamber filled with specially prepared cesium gas is pushed to speeds of 300 times the normal speed of light. That is so fast that, under these peculiar circumstances, the main part of the pulse exits the far side of the chamber even before it enters at the near side. Dr. Chiao, whose own research laid some of the groundwork for the experiment, added that "there's been a lot of controversy" over whether the finding means that actual information--like the news of an impending accident--could be sent faster than c, the velocity of light. But he said that he and most other physicists agreed that it could not.Fast BreakResearchers say it is the most convincing demonstration yet that the speed of light—supposedly an ironclad rule of nature—can be pushed beyond known boundaries, at least under certain laboratory circumstances. "This effect cannot be used to send information back in time," said Lijun Wang, a researcher with the private NEC Institute. "However, our experiment does show that the generally held misconception that 'nothing can travel faster than the speed of light' is wrong." The achievement has no practical application right now, but experiments like this have generated considerable excitement in the small international community of theoretical and optical physicists. Wang said the effect is possible only because light has no mass; the same thing cannot be done with physical objects. Aephraim Steinberg, a physicist at the University of Toronto, said the light particles coming out of the cesium chamber may not have been the same ones that entered, so he questions whether the speed of light was broken.An Engineering Approach to Solar and Galactic Formation"In the most striking of the new experiments a pulse of light that enters a transparent chamber filled with specially prepared cesium gas is pushed to speeds of 300 times the normal speed of light. That is so fast that, under these peculiar circumstances, the main part of the pulse exits the far side of the chamber even before it enters at the near side."
by Neil B. ChristiansonMeta Research: Speed Limit of GravityThe team at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts report in the Jan. 29 issue of Physical Review Letters, the atoms change their magnetic spin just slightly -- a change that allows them to store information from the photons. Hitting the cloud of hot rubidium gas with another laser pulse releases the first pulse, they said. Usually, when a photon hits an atom -- even an atom in a highly reflective mirror -- it gets absorbed and heats up the atom, putting it into what physicists call a higher energy state.
by Tom Van Flandern
Repeal the Speed LimiT
by Tom Van Flandern
Physicists Slow Speed of Light
Physicists Slow Speed of Light
by William J. Cromie
Slowing Light to 38 MPH !!
What Advantage Is Slowing Light To 38 Mph Going To Have?
Scientists Hold Light Particles Captiveby Maggie Fox
Health and Science CorrespondentLight stopped in its tracksTo stop light altogether, the scientists have utilised a similar but far more powerful effect. The researchers cooled a gas of magnetically trapped sodium atoms to within a few millionths of a degree of absolute zero (-273 deg C). This would normally be opaque to light. But by illuminating it with a laser called a coupling beam, it can be made transparent, thereby allowing another laser pulse to pass through it. It is a process known as electromagnetically induced transparency. And, astonishingly, if the coupling laser is turned off while the probe pulse is inside the gas cloud, the probe pulse stops dead in its tracks. If the coupling beam is then turned back on, the probe pulse emerges intact, just as if it had been waiting to resume its journey.
by Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor
Faster Than Light:
Superluminal Loopholes
in Physics
by Nick Herbert
wow...you are on top of yor game today...very funny!
the inevitable appearance of two alternate but parallel universes resulting from too many tequila shooters.
Faster than a speeding Schummer!!!!!!!!
To make the math work. ;)
Who says that it did? And why couldn't it?
Step back and look at what you're saying: essentially, you're assuming that time is unidirectional.
It used to be that time was assumed to be unidirectional and that it changes at a constant rate. Einstein's breakthrough came when he challenged the assumptions about time -- and as a result, relativity dispensed with the idea that time passes at a constant rate.
Now: what if space-time is somehow different from what you're assuming it to be? It might be "impossible" according to your assumptions, but what if your assumptions are wrong?
I have no idea whether these guys are mistaken or not. I'm just not ready to call "impossible."
Until someone other than an arrogant German scientist can prove it, the theory will remain a theory.
Does that look anything like the floor on crack?
My wife and I dream of the peaceful laid-back days when we had just two small children.
pi are not squared. They are round.
Bump for later
That's right! If there were a Paris Hilton thread today we wouldn't be wasting our valuable time on this physics stuff that is of no use whatsoever.
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