CERN breaks the speed of light?

[johnsmith]

Then I'd give a shout out to spurstalk in genesis 1:2

Dan would feel quite vindicated if you did this........so don't.

[Agloco]

i know it was hardware malfunction and all, but theoretically arent particles supposed to be able to near, even break, the speed of light?

Not break. Particles can go faster than light when not in a vacuum, but the actual speed of light constant - the speed of light in a vacuum - isn't supposed to be a barrier than can be broken.

Manny.

Particles may travel faster than light....in a medium. More specifically, particles may travel faster than light would within that medium. This is the origin of Cerenkov radiation (and the reason I have a bluish glow according to Teysha Blue ). Simplistically, one may think of this as analogous to breaking the speed of sound and the effects seen (heard) with it.

There is some conjecture as to whether neutrinos may travel faster than light. Problem is with detection unfortunately. SNR is so bad, sensors must be built miles underground. This and their flux have some implications on radioactive decay.

[Agloco]

Crap, destroying old laws is the most exciting part of physics. Maybe we'll get lucky and have the Higgs field shot down this year.

Or get confirmation.

[Drachen]

Or get confirmation.

agreed, but I think in the case of the speed of light, I think that destroying that law would be substantially more exciting than upholding it.

[Agloco]

agreed, but I think in the case of the speed of light, I think that destroying that law would be substantially more exciting than upholding it.

Yah...not sure how I'd respond to that initially though.

Probably with about 4 neat Scotches tbh.

[LnGrrrR]

http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/02/22/...ors_picks=true





loose fiber optic cable........

This is why network engineers get paid the big money. To mess up world-altering physics events.

[MannyIsGod]

My fiber optic cable came lose and I posted in the wrong thread.

[Drachen]

My fiber optic cable came lose and I posted in the wrong thread.

This is why you should use butter instead of a thermometer. Eventually Tech will you with it's glassy wire.

[Agloco]

http://www.tgdaily.com/general-scien...-light-sort-of

This isn't a case of those pesky CERN neutrinos again, but rather a technique called four-wave mixing, which reshapes parts of light pulses as they travel through a vacuum and shunts them forward from their natural position.

It could be used, say the researchers, to improve the timing of communications signals and to investigate the propagation of quantum correlations.

Einstein's special theory of relativity gives us a sort of cosmic speed limit, with no information able to travel faster than light in a vacuum. But there's a loophole, says the team. A short burst of light arrives as a generally-symmetric curve, like a bell curve in statistics.

And while the leading edge of that curve can't exceed the speed of light, the main hump - the peak of the pulse - can be shifted forward to arrive sooner than it normally would.

[TeyshaBlue]

Where you been, AG?

[MannyIsGod]

http://www.tgdaily.com/general-scien...-light-sort-of

If you give something a push while its already traveling at the the speed of light does it go faster?

PS Ag, after the last two semesters I've come to hate physics. E&M can suck it.