Speed of Light Broken?

[mrcurious]

[url=http://www.engadget.com/2007/0...ientists-claim-to-have-broken-speed-of-light/<br /><br />Anyone who understands quantum tunneling, would love to hear your input on this..

 

[jgreimer]

Contrary to the article there have been other claims to have broken the light barrier, but they all involved the uncertainty of knowing the exact position of the photon. If the uncertainty is exploited so that the positions of the photon at the beginning of the measurement and the end of the measurement are maximum distance apart, you can obtain a velocity greater than c for your result. Has that been eliminated from this measurement?

 

[alokmohan]

Serious misconception,mecurious

 

[dragon04]

A more accurate way to think about it would be not that the speed of light was broken, but rather circumvented via a short cut outside of what we see as "normal space".<br /><br />Quantum Tunnelling isn't like boring a hole through a mountain to get from point A to point B.<br /><br />Quantum Tunneling is like smashing the mountain perfectly flat, instantly passing through it, and then re-expanding the mountain back to its original width after we pass through it.<br /><br />Quantum Tunneling is a phenomenon that connects all points in space-time no matter how far apart they are.<br /><br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>"2012.. Year of the Dragon!! Get on the Dragon Wagon!".</em> </div>

 

[lukman]

Quantum tunnelling? make a worm hole, make a puncture in space time. I dont know how one can make an artificial worm hole, in nature, worm hole can be created by an enormous gravitational field. At a higher gravity, clock ticks slower, at a certain gravitational strength, clock will stop. Higher gravity, a puncture in a space, below the event horizon, clock ticks backward. <br /><br />In 3D illustration, we are like a dot on a balloon, inside the baloon is not the center of universe, instead it was universe past time, in the center of balloon, it was begining of the time, where the universe is very small, a few left or right movement there is equal to huge distant in the present universe. <br /><br />That means, if we go inside the balloon (past), travelling in the tunnel, make some miles in 3D movement inside, back to the tunnel, exit the tunnel into present, we will see the few miles we make has been equal to many parsecs on our present space. <br /><br />That is not science, i just make itu up, my understanding that to be able to travel in huge distant at once, gravity is the key. Where are all matters suck into black holes? they are all been sent to past, soon all the universe will be filled by black holes, nothing left to suck into black hole, universe will be crunched because the gravitational imbalanced, and all the matters sent by black hole had made the past (beginning of the time) is over crowded, then big bang, over and over again. Anyone understand? <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[pyoko]

Apparently they travelled in time while doing the experiment, arriving on 1 April 2006, and decided that the irony was the same as 'coppery', only with iron. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="color:#ff9900" class="Apple-style-span">-pyoko</span> <span style="color:#333333" class="Apple-style-span">the</span> <span style="color:#339966" class="Apple-style-span">duck </span></p><p><span style="color:#339966" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color:#808080;font-style:italic" class="Apple-style-span">It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.</span></span></p> </div>

 

[a_lost_packet_]

Just a note: Traditionally "Breaking the Speed of Light Barrier" refers to particles with mass. The particles in the experiment do not have mass. Therefore, no laws were broken, Einstein is fine and nobody is getting a speeding ticket. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="1">I put on my robe and wizard hat...</font> </div>

 

[kelvinzero]

The problem is that if you can transmit information faster than light you can also send it backwards in time.<br /><br />I submitted an explanation of how the special case of an instantaneous communicator creates a paradox in another thread on this news item.

 

[Saiph]

the way my quantum professors have always explained it is that yes, it does break C. However it does so on a such a small scale, and in such a fashion as that scaling the technique up to any useful dimensions is impossible.<br /><br />This is because the particle does indeed go from point A, to point B instantaneously. However it has to cross a potential barrier to do so. If you scale up the size of the barrier it has to cross, the probability of the particle making the jump decreases drastically. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p align="center"><font color="#c0c0c0"><br /></font></p><p align="center"><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">----</font></em></font><font color="#666699">SaiphMOD@gmail.com </font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">-------------------</font></em></font></p><p><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">"This is my Timey Wimey Detector.  Goes "bing" when there's stuff.  It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually.  I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- </font></em></font><font size="1" color="#999999">The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[vastbluesky92]

soon all the universe will be filled by black holes, nothing left to suck into black hole, universe will be crunched because the gravitational imbalanced, and all the matters sent by black hole had made the past (beginning of the time) is over crowded, then big bang, over and over again. Anyone understand? -lukman<br /><br />Actually, due to Quantum processes (Hawking radiation) Black holes slowly dissipate, so the universe will never be full of black holes.<br /><br />And also, the dots on the balloon representation of the universe is just to help people understand how it can look to every galaxy as if all other galaxies are moving away from it and that it is in the center of the universe. The universe is not necessarily shaped at all like a balloon. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>--____________________________________________--</p><p><font size="1"> Don't be too hard on me...I'm only in PHY 1010 </font></p><p> </p><p><font color="#339966">         The following goes without saying:</font> </p> </div>

 

[lukman]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p> Actually, due to Quantum processes (Hawking radiation) Black holes slowly dissipate, so the universe will never be full of black holes. <p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />see this link <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[lukman]

another link <br /><br />I dont know if the below information was reliable, but it is unbelievable:<br /><br />A one solar mass black hole, a black hole with the mass of the sun, it will live for 65 cosmological decades (10^65 years). The typical stellar black hole that is produced by a super nova explosion is expected to be about 10 solar masses. This kind of black hole would live a thousand times longer, or about 68 cosmological decades (10^68 years). A million-solar mass-black hole--like the one that lives in the middle of our galaxy--would live for 83 cosmological decades (10^83 years). <br /> outrageous. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>