Scientists debunk Einstein?

[AtrainV]

I'm not completely up to date on this, but I have a rudimentary understanding of how Einstein's theory of relativity works. However, I feel like this is something Fish could get excited about ;).

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/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."

[Fish]

Very interesting article; good find! It seems that the principle they used is based on Quantum uncertainty (as in Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_principle)). The basic idea is that when examining a particular electron, you can know where it is, or how fast it's traveling, but not both. This is because of wave-particle duality (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave-particle_duality); every particle also has wave-like properties, essentially meaning that when we look at an electron, we can predict where it will probably be, but for all intents and purposes, it's in two places (all places, actually) at once. It ultimately is wherever it has the highest probability of being.

Quantum tunneling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_tunneling) happens when something like a photon basically "tunnels" through a solid barrier, given that it has enough energy. It doesn't "break through," it just is on the other side, because there is a certain probability of finding it on either side of the barrier to begin with (see above). And so, what is basically happening is that the probability of the particle being in one place rather than another gets upset, and thus, the particle "changes" its location.

And this works for things other than particles! There is even a chance that you might suddenly end up 12 inches to the left, or in another room in your house, or on another planet (or out in empty space). :o The chances of that happening are so small (if it rarely happens for individual particles, imagine how many particles you have) that such an event will likely never occur anytime in the entire history of the universe. Not to mention it would require unprecedented amounts of energy to actually cause such a shift.

And so it seems that while the particles are not traveling faster than light speed, they are teleporting. Because the particle is technically in both places at once to begin with (because it's a wave), they simply reduced the probability that it was in one place (station a) and increased the probability that it was in another (station b). Ultimately, this is more practical than trying to literally travel at FTL speeds and, in my opinion, is way cooler.

Sounds like something out of a Douglass Adams novel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_Improbability_Drive), doesn't it? :D

[Erorr]

no nonsense bump , this was a good read

[Mantikore]

pretty interesting. over the past few centuries, what be believe to be fact has been constantly challenged.

though the concept of having someone arrive before you see them do so is pretty hard to comprehend, but if it can be done in a similar way to sound, then i guess with light it wont be much different.

but im no physicist, so i dont really understand the scientific aspect behind such shenanigans

[Mirana]

oh so we can meat alians suun?

[LSA King]

Don't surprise me. Einstein was a jew, half of what came out of his mouth was probably lies and misdirections.

[Cliche Guevara]

I didn't see anything in the article mention anything about actually travelling faster than the speed of light. Its like quantum entanglement or something.

:( damn. lol LSA king im sure you of all people figured out that Einstein was a liar.

[dedraic]

This thread reminded me I had this (http://einsteinhoax.com/hoax.htm) link bouncing around my favorites list. I haven't read it yet, but figured it was at least partially relevant.

[Lysergic Rain]

Don't surprise me. Einstein was a jew, half of what came out of his mouth was probably lies and misdirections.

oh shit that made me laugh

[Siu3d]

That all made no sense to me. I guess I'll just have to wait for Hollywood to sum it all up with an overpriced movie...

[Jerry]

yeah! ^^^


and man this thread is old!

And with my quite extensive non-understanding of physics, I deem this pretty cool :bluecool:

What implications would this have for time travel? (Also know nothing of this)

[Rainycity]

who keeps bumping this shit

[Erorr]

who keeps bumping this shit

YOU!