The Ultimate Speeding Ticket...

[stephen55]

The boffins at CERN may (or may not) have detected a particle traveling faster than the (supposedly) ultimate speed limit.

They have measured a neutrino beam that just may have exceeded the speed of light. Einstein had stated that nothing (in a vacuum) can exceed the speed of light.

http://news.yahoo.com/strange-particles-may-travel-faster-light-breaking-laws-192010201.html

As this result would upend a good deal of current physics, the people at CERN are being careful to check and recheck their results before claiming that they have actually proven faster than light speeds do exist. (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)



There once was a lady from Bright
Who could travel faster than light
She took off one day
In a relative way
And came back the previous night!

 

[Handley_Page]

I heard on tonight's news that they have no made any assertions;
they merely want some confirmation of their results.

 

[mynameisben]

The boffins at CERN may (or may not) have detected a particle traveling faster than the (supposedly) ultimate speed limit.

May or may not have, eh? I guess that really does cover all the possibilities.

 

[R. Richard]

The boffins at CERN may (or may not) have detected a particle traveling faster than the (supposedly) ultimate speed limit.

They have measured a neutrino beam that just may have exceeded the speed of light. Einstein had stated that nothing (in a vacuum) can exceed the speed of light.

http://news.yahoo.com/strange-particles-may-travel-faster-light-breaking-laws-192010201.html

As this result would upend a good deal of current physics, the people at CERN are being careful to check and recheck their results before claiming that they have actually proven faster than light speeds do exist. (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)

There once was a lady from Bright
Who could travel faster than light
She took off one day
In a relative way
And came back the previous night!

The people at CERN have checked and rechecked their results, many times. What they are now doing is to to tell the scientific community, "We got these results, what do you think?" A standard procedure, when the results are this revolutionary. (I'm very interested. However, I'm even more interested in fast ladies.)

 

[mynameisben]

The people at CERN have checked and rechecked their results, many times. What they are now doing is to to tell the scientific community, "We got these results, what do you think?" A standard procedure, when the results are this revolutionary. (I'm very interested. However, I'm even more interested in fast ladies.)

Heh heh. I admire a man who has his priorities in order.

 

[3113]

The boffins at CERN may (or may not) have detected a particle traveling faster than the (supposedly) ultimate speed limit.

Darn you Stephen! Get better titles! I looked through all the titles to see if this was already posted and didn't notice yours because there was not "FTL" in the title or any mention of light or anything

I hate double posting.

And I've decided I don't like you today. Though chocolates, roses and an abject apology might make me reconsider.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Did Einstein actually say nothing could travel faster than light or did he say that the energy required to travel FTL was so enormous that it was virtually impossible to travel FTL? Big difference there.

Under the special theory of relativity, a particle (that has mass) with subluminal velocity needs infinite energy to accelerate to the speed of light, although special relativity does not forbid the existence of particles that travel faster than light at all times (tachyons).

 

[TE999]

This discovery may, in time, rival the cracking of the atom. Having an FTL drive starship would be majorly cool!

 

[Handley_Page]

This discovery may, in time, rival the cracking of the atom. Having an FTL drive starship would be majorly cool!

Could be really useful getting to Mars or even the Moon.
But would it get you into her knickers any quicker ? Frank;ly I doubt it.

 

[Tyro999]

This discovery may, in time, rival the cracking of the atom. Having an FTL drive starship would be majorly cool!

Erm. If and when someone figures out how to make an FTL drive and starship out of neutrinos, and then how to supersize the CERN accelerator to send it on it way to the stars.

Einstein's theories did nothing to change the observations that produced Newtonian physics, and quantum physics did nothing to change the observations that produced Einstein's theories. All three still operate as expected in the realms they were developed to explain. Howevermuch gray hair and baldness this discovery, if confirmed, may cause on the heads of theoretical physicists trying to figure it out, it won't change much about the world as we've always known it.

[Until Boeing or Airbus figures out how to make an FTL starship out of neutrinos and supersize that CERN accelerator.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

If this turns out to be true, at least for neutrinos, I will take back all my badmouthing of theoretical/particle physics being mind games. Such an upending of the Current Model of the universe reaffirms the comment "The universe may not only be stranger than we understand, it may well be stranger than we can understand" or something like that.

I still think wormholes hold more promise for interstellar travel . . . eventually.

 

[mynameisben]

I still think wormholes hold more promise for interstellar travel . . . eventually.

I think that's how Albert Hofmann discovered LSD.