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Loose cable blamed for speedy neutrinos
Science News ^ | 2/23/2012 | Devin Powell

Posted on 03/06/2012 1:16:25 AM PST by U-238

Faulty wiring has been proposed as the glitch that caused a European physics experiment to clock particles flying faster than light.

Scientists at Italy’s OPERA experiment reported in September that nearly weightless particles called neutrinos were apparently traveling from the CERN laboratory on the Swiss-French border to an underground detector in Italy, 730 kilometers away, faster than the speed of light. The apparent violation of Einstein’s theory of special relativity immediately produced a chorus of theorists offering reasons why neutrinos simply could not be going that fast (SN: 11/5/11, p. 10).

“It was always clear to me that the results could not have been true,” says Nobel Prize-winner Sheldon Glashow, a physicist at Boston University and an early critic of the finding.

Yet during a second run of the experiment in November, neutrinos again appeared to arrive in Italy 60 nanoseconds earlier than light covering the same distance in a vacuum would have (SN: 10/22/11, p. 18).

On February 23 the OPERA team announced what might be causing the surprising observations: A bad connection with a cable that relays satellite GPS signals to keep the experiment’s clocks in sync could have made each particle’s trip seem to take less time than it actually did.

(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: astrophysics; cern; neutrinos; opera; physics; speedoflight; stringtheory; xplanets
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1 posted on 03/06/2012 1:16:32 AM PST by U-238
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To: KevinDavis; SunkenCiv

Ping


2 posted on 03/06/2012 1:18:42 AM PST by U-238
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To: U-238

“It was always clear to me that the results could not have been true,”

And why is that?


3 posted on 03/06/2012 1:47:54 AM PST by MestaMachine (obama kills)
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To: U-238
“It was always clear to me that the results could not have been true,” says Nobel Prize-winner Sheldon Glashow, a physicist at Boston University and an early critic of the finding.

I was also an early critic.

Just wanted to throw that out there.

^^

4 posted on 03/06/2012 2:01:40 AM PST by SIDENET ("If that's your best, your best won't do." -Dee Snider)
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To: MestaMachine
because modern physics and its equations prohibit the idea if going faster than the speed of light,,,, it would have required a change of our fundamental understanding if how things work
5 posted on 03/06/2012 2:08:46 AM PST by Nifster
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To: SIDENET

shhhh don’t let the LENR folks know.....


6 posted on 03/06/2012 2:10:38 AM PST by Nifster
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To: Nifster

Oh...and they have never had to ‘rethink’ their assumptions and/or theories? Only almost always. WHAT moves ‘light’?


7 posted on 03/06/2012 2:14:14 AM PST by MestaMachine (obama kills)
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To: U-238

Bummer.

I loved the idea of a faster than light, zero mass, infinitely large neutrino bubble digging itself through the heart of southern Europe.

Guess I’ll just have to wait for the real excitement when CERN generates an accidental Black Hole.


8 posted on 03/06/2012 2:14:37 AM PST by zeestephen
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To: MestaMachine

your question makes no sense....light has no mass, It is a wave that is produced after the relaxation of a quantized state


9 posted on 03/06/2012 2:17:54 AM PST by Nifster
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To: U-238

Been there...Done that...


10 posted on 03/06/2012 2:18:05 AM PST by SuperLuminal (Where is another agitator for republicanism like Sam Adams when we need him?)
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To: MestaMachine

I’m still trying to wrap my mind around E=MC2 .
If nothing can go faster than C how does that work?

Signed Confused.


11 posted on 03/06/2012 2:19:12 AM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: Nifster

Can you block it so that it ceases moving?


12 posted on 03/06/2012 2:24:00 AM PST by MestaMachine (obama kills)
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To: Nifster
Re: “Light Has No Mass”

Don't tell that to Mr. Photon.

Ever shine a flashlight into vacuum jar and start an aluminum vane spinning around?

13 posted on 03/06/2012 2:40:21 AM PST by zeestephen
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To: U-238

It’s been proven time and time again that matter CAN go faster than light, the latest example being how the networks covered Rush calling that woman a slut almost before he said it. It’s also been proven that time can come to a standstill, such as when a liberal calls someone a sut and it never gets reported for infinity.


14 posted on 03/06/2012 3:25:13 AM PST by GrandJediMasterYoda (How ironic that Ann Coulter should write a book called Treason.)
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To: zeestephen

Please explain?


15 posted on 03/06/2012 3:25:51 AM PST by MrDaddyLongLegs (You dont need any qualifications to be a Politician)
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To: U-238

in attempting to create a black hole. the euro scientists assured us the results of their experiments would be contained

Just what have european electricians wrought?

Remembering that humorous graphic of the earth swallowing itself....


16 posted on 03/06/2012 3:50:11 AM PST by silverleaf (Funny how all the people who are for abortion are already born)
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To: tet68

Try:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass%E2%80%93energy_equivalence#First_derivation_.281905.29

It’s about as simple as it gets. You could try

http://www.amazon.com/Special-Relativity-M-I-T-Introductory-Physics/dp/0393097935

The book only requires a good grasp of high school physics and math. Good luck.


17 posted on 03/06/2012 4:01:59 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Ceterum autem censeo, Obama delenda est.)
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To: zeestephen

Those toy radiometers have nothing whatsoever to do with radiation pressure, are not in a vacuum and spin counter to the direction of radiation pressure.

The vanes have one side white and the other dark. If the mechanism were radiation pressure, the light recoiling off the white side would exert twice the radiation pressure experienced by the dark side absorbing them. The mechanism is heat, they are tiny heat engines, the dark side is warmed more by the light than the white side and the heated air molecules carry off more momentum on the dark side than the light.

Radiation pressure is also expected from Maxwell’s equations and is consistent with E= mc2. See the wiki link in my post above for Einstein’s correct derivation.


18 posted on 03/06/2012 4:12:54 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Ceterum autem censeo, Obama delenda est.)
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To: silverleaf
I found a black hole using Google Earth... 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue!

LLS

19 posted on 03/06/2012 4:26:55 AM PST by LibLieSlayer (WOLVERINES!)
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To: MestaMachine

His name is Sheldon...... how could he be wrong?


20 posted on 03/06/2012 4:29:57 AM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 ..... Crucifixion is coming)
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