'We have broken speed of light'

Telegraph ^ | 8/16/07 | Nick Fleming

[GeorgiaDawg32]

pfft..my ex-wife broke that barrier years ago when at 2 a.m. she would show up at the front door ready to fight before I got the dang car in the garage..

[mad_as_he$$]

No warp drive. Tunnel drive and or worm hole. either works for me!!!

[burzum]

That, and the fact that gravity propagates at a speed that must be at least 2 * 1010 c, and may be infinite. If gravity moved at the comparatively sluggish speed of light then the Earth would spiral into the Sun.

What is your basis for this claim? I hope you aren't one of those folks who confuses phase velocity with group velocity or does not know how to calculate a spherical wavefront.

[mad_as_he$$]

I would give my left one to go with him. Maybe he will be back this week and we can work it out!

[MichaelP]

Quantum teleportation perhaps?

Mike

[mad_as_he$$]

For thirty years or more there has been a divergence in Physics. The Einstein crew (string) and the quantum crew. Neither may be absolutely correct and it is a know fact. They for the most part leave each other alone. This experiment may cause them to come together and resolve the problems with both theories. I strongly recommend the book “The elegant Universe, by Brian Greene” for anyone who is truly interested in this experiment.

[burzum]

Neutron stars (heavy masses) in close orbit throw off huge amounts of gravitons. They spiral in and crash due to conservation of angular momentum.

If the Earth really were attracted to where the Sun was eight minutes ago - well, I admit I was wrong about them crashing into each other. The signs are the wrong way around :0) If gravity propagated outward from the Sun at the speed of light then its mostly radial effect would also have a small transverse component because of the motion of the target. This would act to speed up the Earth in its orbit, sending it slowly away from the sun.

Don't be silly. It isn't as if the Sun is on the telephone with the Earth asking it where to direct its gravitational force (which would cause a 16 minute delay for that conversation). If you consider gravity being propagated as a spherical wave front with no knowledge of what it is going to affect then all of your problems will go away. And if you want some actual calculations/derivations, read here. I also suggest you read up on how central forces work. This logic you used with gravity would cause the exact same problem in electrodynamics. But in those cases there would be a much larger fractional difference between the two objects. If your assumptions were true you would never see stable cyclotron motion (like an electron in a constant magnetic field).

[Sybeck1]

Fascinating...

[bert]

We shouldn’t be so harsh. Grammer policing allows an English major to participate in an educated conversation.

[Danae]

Hum.... to be honest it smells like “Cold Fusion” all over again. I heard Linus Pauling speak on that Matter at Oregon State University. I wonder what he would say now? Most likely, to what decimal degree was the TIME measured to. Because 1) 3 feet is not real far apart, and 2) More than likely there IS a time lag, they were simply not capable of measuring. Get those crystals a MILE apart and then we will have some idea of the accuracy of their claim. Until they can do this over a distance, one great enough to actually measure the difference with currently existing measuring equipment. The closer one gets to the speed of light the more infinitely short the time period becomes, it may LOOK like 0, but it isn’t. Any more than they can calculate the EXACT value of Pi.

[editor-surveyor]

"How many do you need?"

The first offence results in a reprimand, but further incursions may result in fines or imprisonment...

[Dajjal]

BTTT

[editor-surveyor]

" I utilize the speed of light frequently and I’m not at all happy about this."

No joke! My EDMs may be lying to me. (and, can you imagine all the speeding tickets that may get jury trials)

[kbennkc]

But can they fix the check engine light on my BMW ? NOOOO!

[OrioleFan]

So Obama can correct himself before he puts his foot in his mouth on foreign policy. Or Hillary can correct herself before she claimed she had never advocated socialized medicine. Or Edwards would never need another haircut - think of the money he will save. Wow.

[fedupjohn]

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.

If I'm not mistaken E=MC2 solved for C equated to mass becoming infinite, not energy.

[editor-surveyor]

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

While you are at it, why not ask the other question: Does light ever slow down and stop? ;o)

[bioqubit]

around 5-10 years ago, three different labs around the world independently demonstrated the ability to accelerate a photon to something like 500, yes, 500 times the speed of light. Yet so little has been said about this...

[r9etb]

I am just trying to illustrate that something traveling faster then the speed of light does NOT require arriving at a destination before it left the origin (a logical paradox and therefore impossible).

It's only a logical paradox IF (big if) your understanding of space-time is correct. But what if your understanding of space-time is not correct? It's possible to be formally logical correct under a certain set of assumptions, and still be wrong.

There are a lot of things in relativistic and quantum physics that "conventional" logic would deem impossible.

[r9etb]

If I'm not mistaken E=MC2 solved for C equated to mass becoming infinite, not energy

Indirectly, I suppose, but only because kinetic energy would be subject to the [sqrt(1-v²/c²]^-1 term.