Faster than light Neutrinos? Not so fast there buddy. - AusGamers Forums

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Faster than light Neutrinos? Not so fast there buddy.

Scooter

Brisbane, Queensland

5551 posts

If the report is confirmed (right now, there's only one source), then it provides a simple explanation for the fascinating-yet-difficult-to-accept results. According to the new report, researchers are preparing to gather new data with the clocks properly hooked into computers, which should definitively indicate whether the loose connection was at fault.

It would be pretty sad if a loose cable is all that was producing false results. It doesn't make much difference to the average person if it's true or not, well not yet. But I was secretly hoping it was true, just to shake things up a bit.

Article

The aparent source There isn't much information but Sciencemag is with the AAAS, so they normally know their stuff.

10:39am 23/02/12 Permalink

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10:39am 23/02/12 Permalink

Pinky

Melbourne, Victoria

12698 posts

Hah, that would be amusing.

Last I read on this there were about 50 feasible explanations. The most likely was that one end of the experiment was under the Alps and it was difficult to pinpoint the exact location with the high degree of accuracy required.

10:40am 23/02/12 Permalink

copuis

Brisbane, Queensland

2308 posts

I always wondered which "light" was the "speed of light" measured against

UV and blue are "faster" (from memory), and red is slower, or does the wavelength have nothing to do with the speed, (or is it so small (the difference) that it doesn't matter)

10:49am 23/02/12 Permalink

thermite

Brisbane, Queensland

9026 posts

copuis

so if the speed of light is constant, changing the wavelength should also change the frequency to compensate

11:08am 23/02/12 Permalink

Nerfy

Brisbane, Queensland

5406 posts

Yeahhh I started the previous thread and was pretty excited when I first heard the news, but then got a better grasp of the situation and now have just been waiting for the mistake to be found. Was totally putting my money on a computer numerical precision bug. ^_^

11:24am 23/02/12 Permalink

trog

AGN Admin

Brisbane, Queensland

35767 posts

This should be a cue to post a bunch of hilarious Einstein images.

WWW

11:34am 23/02/12 Permalink

Dazhel

Gold Coast, Queensland

4463 posts

haha that Einstein pic is awesome
Need another one: "I know who killed Schrödinger's cat"

11:48am 23/02/12 Permalink

parabol

Brisbane, Queensland

6752 posts

so if the speed of light is constant, changing the wavelength should also change the frequency to compensate

It's not strictly constant :)

Pop light through a dielectric/material and it'll appear to travel slower than when it did in air/vacuum.

"Ok, constant in that material then smarty pants" you might say. Well, dispersive media causes light of different wavelengths to travel at slightly different speeds (e.g. rainbow spectrum pattern through a prism) in that medium. So each wavelength you look at has its own refractive index ...

Light is awesome.

11:57am 23/02/12 Permalink

Cheez

Brisbane, Queensland

535 posts

05:16pm 23/02/12 Permalink

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05:16pm 23/02/12 Permalink

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