CERN say they may have broken the absolute speed barrier with particles traveling faster than light http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_BREAKING_LIGHT_SPEED?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
We'd be ignorant to believe all the laws of physics we created are true. I believe there will be tons of discoveries in the next centuries that will smash the theories of physics and the way we see the universe and it's parts.
My guess is that it won't be independently confirmed by other sources, and this find will more or less be swept under the rug.
Isn't the theory that if theoretically you travel faster than light; you are really travelling back in time? Or is that a myth... :grin:
I believe the theory is that as you reach the speed of light your mass becomes infinite. Or am I misremembering my high school physics?
Neutrinos are incredibly hard to detect at all; one question I'm sure they have to answer (and maybe they've already answered it): are you sure the neutrinos hitting your detector are exactly the neutrinos you think they are (e.g. not coming from some other source, like the sun, etc.) I assume this can't be the issue. Another simple one, and the size of the "effect" is about the right size, would be something as bozo simple as not accounting for the curvature of the earth. I'm 100% confident they've thought of this, but if it's about 700 km from the source to the detector, *on Earth*, it's shorter than that for the neutrinos that move on a straight line through the Earth (like connecting two points on a circle.) The curvature isn't trivial, since this distance is more than one tenth the Earth's radius.
Hey Bob do you have any good slightly more technical books on physics you would recommend? If I remember correctly you have a physics background. I've been trying to get myself back into physics and math. In college I was COMPLETELY burned out on them from engineering, but I have always enjoyed science. Now it's almost like I have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder :grin: when I start trying to get into the equations and technical stuff so I am trying to go slowly. Anyhow, I've just finished The Black Hole Wars from Susskind...an amazing book. I got that book from Brian Greene's The Hidden Reality. Before those 2 I read Parallel Worlds from Michio Kaku. Also, I read a very cool and more technical book from Gerald Edelman called A Universe Of Consciousness How Matter Becomes Imagination. Just kind of wanted to give you an idea where I am at in my reading in case you did have any suggestions. Thanks in advance if you have any!
I think (if I recall correctly) the theory is that if you travel at the speed of light, you travel FORWARD in time. Supposedly, in order to travel back in time, one would have to travel at a negative speed, which isn't possible.
