Friday 23 September 2011

FTL


Watching this with interest.

Long scientific story short: a beam of neutrinos received at the underground lab near L'Aquila in Italy (yes, where they had those earthquakes a couple of years ago) from the CERN facility in Switzerland seems to have contained at least one particle which moved above the speed of light.

The fallout from this, if the experimental results are verified, include the necessity of reformulating the Special Theory of Relativity, since some of the equations would blow up if a particle's velocity exceeded the speed of light.

Also on the chopping block and directly related to the SToR equations, is the assumption that the speed of light is a constant and would remain the same for observers in any frame of reference - an assumption upon which a major load of Physics is predicated today.

It's an interesting and exciting finding, but we shall have to wait for corroboration.

Pic: That's actually the San Grosso Lab, not a painting by Alex Grey

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