The speed of light is NOT constant

[pinkmouse]

And The Register's take on it. Sensible commentary at the end too.

 

[DF96]

Yes, a good comment.

 

[Rodeodave]

Since at the speed of light time comes to a complete halt, they all have the same age...zero.

They are as old as they were the moment they were created; since their creation, no time has passed in the photon's frame. Whether they come from the Moon, the Sun or Alpha Centauri, they are all equally old. Zero, that is, if you believe that Einstein dude.

vac

Also, they don't really go anywhere.

 

[vacuphile]

When the quantum state of one half an entangled pair is measured and the quantum state is determined, the quantum state of the other halve will be determined as well, regardless of distance. Instanteneously. It stands to logic that information must have been exchanged. I don't think science has any clue about the underlaying mechanism; everything up to this point is conjecture. But imo the fact remains that information has travelled faster than light, whatever the mechanism.

After having designed the perfect loudspeaker, I will go on to solving this riddle.

vac

 

[pinkmouse]

I suspect solving quantum entanglement will be the easier task.

 

[jgazal]

I had read the neutrino thing at a local site (Brazil). The headline was “Particle is faster than light”.

Then I decided to access BBC, which is neutral and conservative. Apparently British readers in general know a little bit more about scientific method, scrutiny, statistics, falsifiability from Karl Popper etc.

Karl Popper was a professor at London School of Economics. It is curious that Popper was also against Niels Bohr. Eventually Einstein had to agree with quantum mechanics, didn’t he?

 

[Joseph K]

This is also a good report - adds some more insight:

Particles break light-speed limit : Nature News

 

[SY]

It stands to logic that information must have been exchanged.

Not so much, no, at least not in the usual meaning of the term "information." I can't determine the quantum state of "my" particle in advance, so although I will know the results of a nonlocal measurement, I can't use that entanglement to carry information. Analogously, I can shoot an electron to a distant location, then know in advance what the charge measurement will be without violating causality or SR.

If these results hold up, this is HUGE news, the sort that presages major advances in knowledge.

 

[vacuphile]

Let me be more precise: the coupled pair must have exchanged information at a speed >> C, but within an (hitherto) inaccessible black box.

HUGE news indeed. And Ms. Serendipity at her finest.

vac

 

[benb]

When the quantum state of one half an entangled pair is measured and the quantum state is determined, the quantum state of the other halve will be determined as well, regardless of distance. Instanteneously. It stands to logic that information must have been exchanged. I don't think science has any clue about the underlaying mechanism; everything up to this point is conjecture. But imo the fact remains that information has travelled faster than light, whatever the mechanism.

After having designed the perfect loudspeaker, I will go on to solving this riddle.

vac

I suspect solving quantum entanglement will be the easier task.

Furthermore, there will be a lot less argument about whether quantum entanglement has been solved!

...
If these results hold up, this is HUGE news, the sort that presages major advances in knowledge.

Yes. As I understand it, detecting a particle that's traveling faster than light is equivalent to getting a message from the future, and that with this setup it's possible to predict what will happen 60 nanoseconds into the future. Practically, that's not very astounding, but suppose you could extend the time of that prediction to something any person can easily perceive, say one second:
http://www.concatenation.org/futures/whatsexpected.pdf

 

[thaumaturge]

Sci American's version:

Particles Found to Travel Faster than Speed of Light: Scientific American

More to the point; what will this mean in terms of the phase relationships between bass and treble arriving at out ears?
Doc

 

[benb]

Electrons going through wires, semiconductors and through vacuum by thermionic emission aren't fast enough for the demands of the modern audiophile. I predict a new technology for higher-fidelity audio components: neutrinonics.

 

[digits]

I wonder what we would find at the location the big bang took place if we found it today. Would it be like a super vacuum?

 

[Darkstar52]

Wow heavy stuff. I needed a break, so I listened to "Klaatu 3:47 EST". In Dee Long's song "Little Neutrino" they sing:

Across your open mind
I trace erratic lines
In motion and in time

...I am someone you'll never know
I am the little neutrino

 

[Saturnus]

I wonder what we would find at the location the big bang took place if we found it today. Would it be like a super vacuum?

That would be a false assumption. The matter in the universe does not propagate on a circular disc like a shock wave but instead is more like a sponge where it's the distances between areas of dense matter that expand.

 

[pinkmouse]

I wonder what we would find at the location the big bang took place if we found it today. Would it be like a super vacuum?

We are at the location the big bang took place.

 

[7n7is]

I looked at Sfarti's comment and found that Thim already debunked his rant on page 2.

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/8/24/2063601//Sfarti-TransverseDoppler.pdf

 

[SY]

Yes, cranks are persistent. And incapable of understanding their own errors.

In the meantime, real scientists are doing interesting science.

 

[jan.didden]

Just heard a report on the radio that scientists at CERN has detected a particle that *appears* to move faster than c.
They are now providing their data to other institutions to see if they can replicate the results are at least verify the test setup and data interpretation.

jan didden

 

[7n7is]

You can see Sfarti getting more verbal beatings from honest hard working physicists here
sfarti aaf - Google Search