Sci/Tech Scientists break speed of light

[XXXconanXXX]

This is a huge scientific breakthrough. Breaking the speed of light is something many scientists have only dreamed of, and now it's finally true. It will be interesting to see what comes of this.

Well, light takes about 8 minutes to travel from Sun to Earth and 5.5 hours to travel to Pluto.

I remember reading that a while back and thought it was pretty cool. The sun we look at is actually the sun 8 minutes ago, like we're looking into the past.

 

[seph ir oth]

Keep in mind everyone that this is a very small particle that moved that fast, so we won't be traveling that fast through space anytime soon >.>

However, if and when we reach that point in technology, traveling from planet to planet or solar system to solar system will actually make humans age faster, because if you travel at the speed of light, everything around you slows down (all a hypothesis to scientists, mostly accepted). So, if we travel to another galaxy, 10 years may pass when we arive to whatever location, but we aged twice as fast. Wouldn't that suck to be older than your mom n dad?

 

[Exide]

I remember reading that a while back and thought it was pretty cool. The sun we look at is actually the sun 8 minutes ago, like we're looking into the past.

Speaking of which..
It's funny how people can (or could, mostly in medieval times) claim to see ones future in the stars.
Considering these stars might be dead over 100 years ago..

I heard of some other experiment where they tried to freeze light or something, making it stop. Apparently this was also a breakthrough, but did anything good come from it?

Ah well, I'm still hoping for super fast broadband in the next 5 years.

 

[VG Emblem]

Keep in mind everyone that this is a very small particle that moved that fast, so we won't be traveling that fast through space anytime soon >.>

However, if and when we reach that point in technology, traveling from planet to planet or solar system to solar system will actually make humans age faster, because if you travel at the speed of light, everything around you slows down (all a hypothesis to scientists, mostly accepted). So, if we travel to another galaxy, 10 years may pass when we arive to whatever location, but we aged twice as fast. Wouldn't that suck to be older than your mom n dad?

Um, no. The faster you travel, the slower you age. In theory, you would age slower because you're moving closer to the speed of light, meaning the path of light starts getting distorted, making time move slower for you, while it continues normally for everyone else. It's a rather primitive form of "time travel," although I myself do not consider it to be so.

This breakthrough slightly scares me. Yes, it might allow for advancements in science, but do we REALLY want to open that can of worms? Something like this can seriously cause distortions in space-time if it is something that doesn't occur naturally (and it doesn't as far as we know). Maybe I'm just paranoid...

 

[Cordel]

This entire experiment is an exploit of constructive wave interference.
The beam did not travel faster then the speed of light.
A breakthrough of this magnitude would ripple through the scientific world
like a tsnaumi. Universities around the world confirm this, and the laws of relativity and quatum theory would be rewritten.

This is the internet. Maybe you shouldn't believe everything you read.

 

[Rinpun]

This entire experiment is an exploit of constructive wave interference.
The beam did not travel faster then the speed of light.
A breakthrough of this magnitude would ripple through the scientific world
like a tsnaumi. Universities around the world confirm this, and the laws of relativity and quatum theory would be rewritten.

This is the internet. Maybe you shouldn't believe everything you read.

He is correct

If any of you frequent slashdot, they hacked this unbreakthrough apart in terms of cheating. As I basically saw it lay down, it was like timing a bunch of dominoes to fall at different times so the wave would "finish before it appeared". In laymen relative frame, it looks like it's going faster than the speed of light, but you really don't know, because you've never gone faster than the speed of light so you don't -know- if that's what is supposed to happen.

 

[Exide]

This breakthrough slightly scares me. Yes, it might allow for advancements in science, but do we REALLY want to open that can of worms? Something like this can seriously cause distortions in space-time if it is something that doesn't occur naturally (and it doesn't as far as we know). Maybe I'm just paranoid...

I'm not saying that you are wrong or anything, because I don't know what is right or wrong, but.
To me it feels like travels has nothing to do with time.
The time moves in a certain direction in a certain speed, and you can't slow it up or speed it down, not by "running faster", at least.

I've heard stories about people who go into space, and how they age much slower than we do on earth. -These stories sounds ridiculous to me.
Why would the time act different in space than here on earth? (I believe the answer to that question is: "It doesn't.")

But then again, I might be wrong.

 

[mithrantir6]

actually, you are indeed wrong Exide, and your mistake is here

The time moves in a certain direction in a certain speed, and you can't slow it up or speed it down, not by "running faster", at least.

here's your mistake. neuton (and common logic) stated that time is a constant, not a variable, but what einstein proved was indeed that time doesnt go in a certain speed for everyone. and thats why when speeds go near the speed of light strange things happen

for example if you are on a train moving with 40km/hour and you move in the direction of the train with 8 km/hour your total speed is 48km/hour (your speed+ train speed)

if a light beam leaves from the train with 300.000km/sec, it should normally move with 300.000km/sec+40km/hour (speed of light+speed of train). that's because nothing can go with a greater speed than lights'

this is also why noone can make a perfect clock which doesnt need to be configured every now and then