Faster than the speed of light?

Cobbydaler · 22-09-2011, 19:31

This is pretty mindblowing if it turns out to be valid:

Quote:

Puzzling results from Cern, home of the LHC, have confounded physicists - because it appears subatomic particles have exceeded the speed of light.
Neutrinos sent through the ground from Cern toward the Gran Sasso laboratory 732km away seemed to show up a few billionths of a second early.
The results will soon be online to draw closer scrutiny to a result that, if true, would upend a century of physics.
The lab's research director called it "an apparently unbelievable result".

Link

Ramrod · 22-09-2011, 22:00

Heard about this on the way home tonight. Amazing if it's true. Bet they are rechecking their data a few times

**Kymmy** · 23-09-2011, 07:36

They're putting all the data online for scrutiny just in case they've made a mistake somewhere along the line.. At the times they're talking about even a single component out of spec could make the data invalid. As Ramrod says though will be amazing and probably a discovery of the century if true.

**Maggy J** · 23-09-2011, 09:24

So it could be that Einstein's maths is no better than mine..

**Kymmy** · 23-09-2011, 09:37

Nah, if proven then it'll be something that Einstein just didn't know about so wouldn't have known to take into account.

Hom3r · 23-09-2011, 10:03

I belive that you can travel faster than light, it's just we haven't worked it out yet.

downquark1 · 23-09-2011, 11:31

They are giving a seminar at CERN later today.

[embittered remark] Once again the press gets wind of this before the CERN community[/embittered remark]

**Russ** · 23-09-2011, 11:46

God 1, Einstein nil

**Kymmy** · 23-09-2011, 11:55

Pauls9 · 23-09-2011, 11:56

Reminds me of the old theory of the earth being the centre of the universe. As more and more observations were made, they had to keep adding in extra factors to account for deviations. Eventually they realised their entire model was rubbish.

Wonder how long the current model of particle physics has got to go before it gets into the same situation?

**Russ** · 23-09-2011, 12:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pauls9

Reminds me of the old theory of the earth being the centre of the universe. As more and more observations were made, they had to keep adding in extra factors to account for deviations. Eventually they realised their entire model was rubbish.

Wonder how long the current model of particle physics has got to go before it gets into the same situation?

In fairness technology, science and research has come a long way since those days - any change to current thinking is probably going to be less of a leap in changed thinking.

Pauls9 · 23-09-2011, 12:02

Agreed, Russ.

Just a rather tongue-in-cheek extrapolation

**Kymmy** · 23-09-2011, 12:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pauls9

Reminds me of the old theory of the earth being the centre of the universe. As more and more observations were made, they had to keep adding in extra factors to account for deviations. Eventually they realised their entire model was rubbish.

Wonder how long the current model of particle physics has got to go before it gets into the same situation?

Going a bit off topic I find it weird that the greeks were fully aware of the earth being round and orbiting the sun only for this knowledge to be lost and then for christian so called scientists who thought/taught that the earth was too important not to be the centre of the universe..

Sparkle · 23-09-2011, 12:12

I wonder how long it'll be before the tin-hatters claim this as proof of a black hole beginning to form within the accelerator machine....

dilligaf1701 · 23-09-2011, 12:34

I dunno - I quite like the idea of being sucked inti oblivion