'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."

[CougarGA7]

pi are not squared. They are round.

Unless it's a Sheperd's Pie.

[Grumpy_Mel]

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

I always questioned that myself. The answer that I was told back in college was that light is the fastest thing known and the only thing known not to be subject to relative motion.

Quick example: You are traveling on a train going 60 MPH and you toss a ball to your friend sitting a few feet in front of you. To you and your freind (both sitting on the train) the ball is going 20 MPH (from your toss). To some-one sitting next to the tracks outside the train to ball is traveling at 80 MPH.... the train imparts it’s relative motion (60 MPH) to the ball. This behavior seems to hold true for pretty much every object they’ve been able to test.... except light, which is the fastest thing ever observed. Light appears to always travel at a constant speed regardless of the speed of the object that generates it.

That’s my dime store explanation of it. Note I’m not a scientist (nor was I even a science major).... so if the explanation is off a bit some-one please feel free to beat me with a rubber chicken.

The thing I always wondered, was why people always assumed the phenominom was due to some sort of universal law....rather then just some funky quality of light itself.

[BOBTHENAILER]

we wouldn't be wasting our valuable time

Everybody on this thread needs a "TIME OUT"

This whole thread is way too funny

[3niner]

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

Not a dumb question, but it's not practical to answer it here. Einstein's General Theory of Relativity implies this (his earlier, Special Theory of Relativity didn't go far enough to be definitive).

Of course, if one actually understands the "General Theory", it still leaves a tiny amount of room for doubt, since it's unlikely we have final and complete understanding on this subject.

[Liberty Tree Surgeon]

No, you’re stating that to be the case if something travels faster than light - I’m merely asking for an explanation of whay that HAS to be the case. Intuition says something traveling faster than light will naturally arrive before something traveling slower - I can’t see how the leap is made to that FTL object arriving BEFORE it was sent.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

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

As a big fan of science fiction from my childhood to the present, I'd have to disagree with this. For every example like Clark's idea about geostationary satellites, there have been a thousand or more wildly mistaken, hopelessly outdated ideas. And there are numerous technologies today that were never imagined 50 years ago by any of John W. Campbell's writers.

I doubt that any writers today come close to portraying the world of 2057, either. I'd like to hope that authors like Vernor Vinge and Peter F. Hamilton are somewhere in the ballpark, though.

[Kevmo]

Interesting enough to bump for later reading.

[TommyDale]

The people here were jumping to the conclusion that “faster than the speed of light” meant time travel. Nonsense. Maybe the speed of light can be exceeded, but I would like to see how it is proven. Measuring a delta time between two prisms only 3 feet apart seems far fetched.

[SunkenCiv]

Frank_2001: Muhammad Ali was the first to break the speed of light. He said he was so fast that he would flip off the light switch in his hotel room and be in bed before it got dark!

:') I think that was originally said of Satchel Paige. :')

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

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

Instantaneously?

If it's in fact instantaneous, then it's not about speed.

Maybe "spooky action" at a distance, but not speed.

[Signalman]

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

I agree. I think this is another "cold fusion" story waiting to be exposed.

[xenophiles]

Do photons have mass?

Yes, they have mass.

One must be careful about the language. There seem to be two classes of objects, the ones that can stand still and the ones that can't. One that can (like an apple) has a "rest mass", that is, its mass when it is not moving. Its mass when it is moving will be higher, because of the energy it's carrying (note that this is subjective-- what you think is moving, I may think is standing still). You can give it as much energy as you like, it will get very fast but never reach C. Things like photons cannot stand still, they are always flying around at the speed of light (in whatever medium they're in). Do they have a rest mass? We say that they have a rest mass of zero, that way we can use the same equations to describe both types of object. But a photon in flight has mass, because it has energy. A green photon has a mass of about 4x10^-36 kilograms, about 4 millionths of an electron's rest mass.

[McGruff]

So I’ can’t use the excuse that I was stuck in a traffic jam on my way to work anymore? Oh great.

[Bender2]

Re: Oh yeah?... well how fast can they do the Kessel run?

Well... in the story it says: "For instance, an astronaut moving faster than it would theoretically arrive at a destination before leaving."

So the answer, Han, old sport... is pretty damned fast!

Han, as much as I hate to say it... Bender is correct.

Dammit! He... sure is!

Can we... get a second opinion?

Dammit, Lrrr! I... was the second opinion!

Then, how's about... a third opinion?

Okay, besides being fat and ugly... you smell like pig poop!

So, Lrrr, get used... to disappointment.

Around Bender... that is the norm!

That... and the smell of pig poop.

With friends like this... the smell keeps them at arms length!

Well, if you make any new friends... I will have to start charging you overtime!

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

I’m no rocket scientist but, how do you measure something that’s going 186,000 miles between a pair of prisms that had been moved up to 3ft apart?

Very carefully. 8>)

[xenophiles]

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

Not a dumb question at all. Light is what people were studying when they discovered the strange things that happen at high speeds. Nature seems to have a fundamental maximum speed, and light travels at that speed (or very, very close to it).

[csuzieque]

This article was worth posting if just for the amount of witty and amusing replies it generated. My thanks to all for an entertaining collection of imaginative posts.

[alloysteel]

An electron - traveling as a photon of light in the vacuum of space - actually has to be traveling at slightly GREATER than the speed of light, is it is also oscillating up and down on a plane within a wavelength of radiant energy. The shorter the wavelength, the faster the photon has to be oscillating within the amplitude of the wave.

[Illuminatas]

"The only reason for time, is so that everything doesnt happen at once." - Buckaroo Bonzai: Bonzai Institute

[Screamname]

We have broken speed of light

Big deal. Hellary has been doing that for years anytime she`s asked about Juanita Brodderick.