Speed of Light...BROKEN! Holy Hole in Relativity, Batman!

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/22/science-light-idUSL5E7KM4CW20110922

The nerd in me is ridiculously giddy over this news.

The results are awaiting confirmation by a team of scientists. If this is confirmed, the implications of this are fucking HUGE!

 

its not really that huge at all.. smash a particle into smaller pieces they will travel faster..

 

So does this mean it would be possible to travel back in time?

 

if youre a particle smaller than a photon .. maybe ..

if a standard clock is operated on standard electricity(light energy). could the clocking device be defective and did they jump to conclusions over a faulty clock?

 

theoretically, yes.

Physically, probably not.

 

Its huge because for the last 100 years physics has been based on Einstein's theories, one of which stated that the speed of light could not be broken.

 

Neutrinos were used to time travel in a Birds of Prey comic I read yesterday

 

Dont know if they understood the smaller particle theory then, as they do today.. and also was no such place as CERN..
Why I said the clock could be broken. /
Thinking of the delay at one end the building to start the clock using electricity. The stated clock is on the other side the building.. Even so, using my example kinda shows the particle is faster than light. If it beat the clock..

Neutrinos I suppose will be the new fiber optic clock to record its own measurements.
Cant measure it against light no more, after the challenge has be broken....

Will Neutrinos be even faster when smashed to something even smaller?
And how will you detect it, in the past?

 

another thing beside fiber optic communcation. I would assume the Neutrinos would have other communication applications such as advance radio telescope or transmitter....

 

It wont change much, just prove what we've already known. That Einsteins theories will have to be improved upon....look up Symmetry Breaking - the parts of physics that haven't/can't be explained yet in short.

 

Einstein also stated that the speed of light is a constant .... Special Relativity has been accused of being flawed for a while now.

Chewbie .... can we finally fix that hyperdrive?!??

 

Well, I guess I am on an island over here lol...the "speed of light broken is a huge deal" island.

 

Well on one hand it is .... on the other hand: what are we going to do with that?

 

What can we really do with any theories and laws in physics? Theorize some more. Build upon it with our minds. Maybe learn how to incorporate it into some physically useful function, maybe not.

The concept of gravity was turned into a pretty nifty carnival ride. Maybe county fairs across the land will learn how to market this.



Just kidding

To me, the concept and its implicatons in the grand scale of the universe is more important than how humans are able to harness it.

 

To me it would be much better to put more money into research that actually produces something usable, like cold fusion for example. When I think about the money that is being spent on some research it makes me cringe.

 

How will this effect my life? Can I travel back in time and warn my parents and friends to move more north to avoid the government of Canada ?

 

I do agree with you there. I feel the same way about Mars exploration, amongst other things. But the money has already been spent and I'm going to be geeking out on the results for a while.

 

Skip, no. Speed of light is constant not relative. E=MC^2 or Energy(E) equals Mass(M) times the speed of light (C or constant) squared....or were you being sarcastic :/

Now time is relative, so time travel is possible just from that fact but if these finds are true and we have particles that can travel faster than the speed of light. Then, in theory, you could travel back in time and kill your mother before you were born...that has me skeptical so far as for the findings.

 

You know what ? I do not care. It is probably a lot of lies to get more money. ie: Look we found something incredible now send us a bigger pay cheque.