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dierna
Member
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# Posted: 16 Aug 2007 21:02
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/e arth/2007/08/16/scispeed116.xml
A pair of German physicists claim to have broken the speed of light - an achievement that would undermine our entire understanding of space and time.
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.
However, Dr Gunter Nimtz and Dr Alfons Stahlhofen, of the University of Koblenz, say they may have breached a key tenet of that theory.
The pair say they have conducted an experiment in which microwave photons - energetic packets of light - travelled "instantaneously" between a pair of prisms that had been moved up to 3ft apart.
Being able to travel faster than the speed of light would lead to a wide variety of bizarre consequences.
For instance, an astronaut moving faster than it would theoretically arrive at a destination before leaving.
The scientists were investigating a phenomenon called quantum tunnelling, which allows sub-atomic particles to break apparently unbreakable laws.
Dr Nimtz told New Scientist magazine: "For the time being, this is the only violation of special relativity that I know of."
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shakeycat
Moderator
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# Posted: 26 Aug 2007 14:47
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Cool! 
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shoes
Member
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# Posted: 28 Aug 2007 14:04
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No way, really?!
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darth_balco
Member
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# Posted: 30 Aug 2007 16:53
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So according to this, there's a tiny, eeny, bitty chance that teleportation could exist in the future? 
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ohm
Member
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# Posted: 30 Aug 2007 17:47 · Edited by: ohm
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Quoting: darth_balco So according to this, there's a tiny, eeny, bitty chance that teleportation could exist in the future?
Sure, if you're a sub atomic particle! More to the point at hand however, if this truly is the case then there goes another good set of laws, namely Einstein's theory of special relativity.
As for it's application as a means to send data it's going to challenge not only special relativity but also quantum mechanics and causality by providing a means to send data "back in time".
This doesn't bode well for the Germans, as well as Wang (http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/generalscien ce/faster_than_c_000719.html), who believe this to be possible.
Personally I never could wrap my head around elements of physics which made time out to be a constant in the universe, something that actually could be affected by things like the speeds of objects. Personally I see time as a more philosophical construct, something that we have invented to measure the distance between two events. How can a unit of measurement actually have "real World" applications to physics?
Darn Physicists and their impure mathematical science.
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aeon
Member
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# Posted: 13 Sep 2007 02:09
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Yay Germany!!!!!!!! 
Whoa... easy with the patriotism here, Missy.
Why am I talking to myself?  
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