| Author | Message | ||
     Sifo |
Or not. This could be interesting if verified... Speed-of-light experiments give baffling result at Cern "The result - which threatens to upend a century of physics - will be put online for scrutiny by other scientists." | ||
| Tankhead |
Sifo- that article gave me the chills. Excellent find. Very exciting for excitement sake. Thanks for posting. | ||
| Panhead_dan |
But what does it mean? I guess I don't fully understand the significance of their findings. I suspect it will have something to do with an antimatter bomb before long. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Physics is based around a series of immutable values plugged into formulas. If those values are variable and not fixed, then all the subsequent formulas are variable. E=mc2 Energy = Mass X the speed of light squared. If the speed of light is a variable number, then the amount of energy released from that matter is variable. In practical terms, it would be like finding out that gravity is heavier and lighter depending on where you live in Toledo. | ||
| Boogiman1981 |
Dan it means that a large chunk of what we thoguht were laws of physics were flat wrong. Basically in the world of high end physics and astromy it changes well it changes everything. Most of the rules are based on the idea that the fastest possible speed for any particulate matter is the speed of light or 186000mi/s. Basically warp drive might actually be possible. This is huge if it's not a mistake. | ||
| Kenm123t |
Ft it means we can work this into dial a yield Nucs and your kid could be in Star Fleet academy. The most exciting place to explore is a few decimal points away. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
I wonder if the mass of the particles changed. Until we can harvest or manufacture anti-matter, we ain't goin' anywhere. | ||
| Gregtonn |
Black Holes bend light, that would indicate light is being accelerated. Has anyone ever explained that? In spite of E=MC^2 I have never believed light to be the ultimate speed. G | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
So if time slows as you reach the speed of light, what happens if you go faster than light? Did those particles go back in time for a billionth of a second? | ||
| Kenm123t |
Anti matter will become viable when we can get the energy cost down and speed up the particles. Remember the early satellites the pay loads rotated we and the russian found out when you rotate the payload the velocity is higher. The russians found they had to counteract he precession of the pay load cause by the inertial guidance systems. The mass may or may not change depending on the orbital speeds of the electrons change with the speed of light shift Interesting this will change the way we do every thing. | ||
| 86129squids |
Far out...  | ||
| Bolthead |
I'm not sure I understand what the scientist from Cern is saying. Is he saying that every time a neutrino changes its state from say a muon neutrino to a tau neutrino it makes time, from the neutrino's point of view, stand still (or alternatively back up)? And would that be why a neutrino from our point of view travels faster than the speed of light? I'm trying to imagine the implications. To me it's baffling. | ||
| Slaughter |
I must be moving at near light speed... I'm feeling infinitely dense. | ||
| Just_ziptab |
But'but' but' hasn't Chuck Norris been faster than the speed of light all along? Carl Sagan did an explanation of how we can not exceed the speed of light with a bicycle rider doing a figure 8 pattern....made sense,but damned if I can find it now. | ||
| Froggy |
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| 86129squids |
Ahhh, thanks Frogs. Since I was a kid, I always wanted to be a scientist. Sucked at math though. OTOH, I excel at spelling, composition, syntax, et cetera... Why does the BW spell check underline "math"?  | ||
| Aesquire |
We can make antimatter. It would make an awesome battery if we could hold it in a bottle. So far, that's the hard part. I'm talking flying car battery. To orbit. The real grails are making gravity, and reactionless drive. Not even a theory on those. After that FTL would be very useful..... The real problem with particles that go faster than light is the causality issues..... | ||
| Sparky |
Harnessing gravity for propulsion is a (possibly) known given thanx to Bob Lazar. All we need is element 115 and bombard it with protons to become unstable whereby it releases enough energy to bend time and space to directionally focus gravity on distant points for out-of this-world acceleration and vector ranging. Or maybe this isn't really what I saw on TV? | ||
| Prowler |
 Warp 9, Mr Sulu............... | ||
| Aesquire |
http://xkcd.com/955/ | ||
| Sifo |
 Funny cartoon Aesquire! But what does it mean? I think there were some very smart people around the world who didn't get any sleep last night asking that same question. E=??? I understand that string theory predicts this. I don't see that as good news at all. String theory hurts my brain way too much. "No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong." Albert Einstein I wonder how long until this is either confirmed or debunked? | ||
| Aesquire |
Not sure on that, but Chuck Norris isn't actually faster than the speed of light, it's just light refuses to beat him in a race. It's afraid it'll get roundhouse kicked into tachyons. | ||
| Slaughter |
The differences between theoretical physics and engineering are dramatic. Theoretical physics gives us such things as subatomic particles showing potential for speeds greater than light. The fact that some part of some atomic sub-particle MAY move at some speed... does that now mean that you can't use your GPS? Does that now mean that we can't any longer tune our radios? Wavelength is governed by the speed of light and frequency. Nothing has changed. I can still wake up to morning talk on my alarm radio. I can still transmit/receive on my cell phone...   Engineering gives us "good enough" solutions. Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien - Voltaire Perfect is the enemy of the good (loose translation) The easily-led, easily-duped will worry about the details and their implications - others will WONDER - while others will continue their research. | ||
| Sifo |
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| Blake |
On our way to Michele's NE TX TSA dinner meeting at Caddo Lake yesterday evening, my iPhone GPS mapping kept indicating that we were in Tyler. Coincidence? | ||
| Blake |
What would be really spooky is if they continue running the experiment and find the speed increasing at an accelerating rate. | ||
| Davegess |
this level of physics makes my head hurt but I know someday some engineer will design something cool because of it. Might take 50 years. | ||
| Reindog |
Where is Zefram Cochrane now that we need him? | ||
| Slaughter |
My alarm will STILL go off at 5:30 tomorrow. I have faith. | ||
| Reindog |
There was a 60ns delta observed at Cern. Heck, I just noticed my alarm went off at: 5:29:59.99999994 I hate losing sleep. |
