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It's not just a good idea...
It's ze Law!
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."
This is a years old story or a variation of it. I remember reading this about tunnelling photons back before November of 2001.
It certainly isn't the first time scientists claimed to have breached a key tenet in Einstein's theory. Just the latest of seemingly dozens. So as always, I guess we'll see.
186,000 mps +- 4,321 mps (19 times out of 20), more or less.
That reminds me of the last time I made dinner.
From the limited information given, it appears to me they’ve just confirmed that the M Theory is correct and alternate universes do exist
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oh puhlease
I used to assume this too, but if gravity propagated at c, then the Earth would be attracted to where the Sun was eight minutes ago (and vice versa, not that this would be a big deal with the Sun).
The result would be that the two bodies would develop a couple, and crash into each other.
A full, not-too-technical explanation of the experimental proofs for the very-fast speed of gravity can be found here. Highly recommended.
What is your basis for making this claim?
Very interesting if true and we do know that nobody (AFAIK) has ever detected a gravity wave. And they have been trying for a long time.
“Einstein said it.
I believe it.
Anyone saying otherwise is a ‘denier’.”
This throws a wrench into Einsteins theory. Just like Einstein’s theory threw a wrench into someone else theory.
“This is the sort of pedantry up with I will not put!”—Winston Churchill
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Up with which I will not put!
Sorry, but your grammar was poor.
; 0
Clearly caused by global warming and is also Bush’s fault.
In other news, Virginia and Texas have imposed large “driver responsibility” fines for those who break the speed of light.
this could be bad for hand signaling in traffic
Hm. I guess you learned a different theory of relativity than the rest of us did.
Length and time are also affected. The latter, at least, has been experimentally demonstrated. For example, muons are created when cosmic rays interact with the atmosphere. The decay rate of muons is known, and from that we can predict how many muons should be detectable at the Earth's surface. The number of muons actually detected is consistent with the time dilation effects predicted by special relativity.
Sorry....
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It's not just a good idea...
It's ze Law!
Bean bag.
I wonder what the reentry is like?
Sir, I’ll have you know that “diddly-squat” is a scientific term of great social and political import!
Riiiiggghhhttt.
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