Scientists: Particles appear to travel faster than light

[SouthAfricanMan]

Scientists in Switzerland say an experiment appears to show that tiny particles traveled faster than the speed of light -- a result that would seem to defy the laws of nature.

The physicists say that neutrinos sent 730 kilometers (453.6 miles) underground between laboratories in Switzerland and Italy arrived a fraction of a second sooner than they should have, according to the speed of light.

...

"After many months of studies and cross checks, we have not found any instrumental effect that could explain the result of the measurement."

...

The physicists say the measurements of the distance and the time involved were performed with great precision, to nanosecond accuracy.

And the results seemed to show the neutrinos travel "at a velocity 20 parts per million above the speed of light, nature's cosmic speed limit."

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/09/23/wo...html?hpt=hp_c1

[goldenboyz]

Nooooooooooo, I don't believe that opera team. impossible. What about the gravity? Those neutrinos have mass or inertia, in other words, they have weight in a gravitational field. So what makes them go faster than the speed of light? And if they can move faster than light, how can we detect or see them? This is not a sci-fi movie like Star Trek or whatever. The warp speed of objects can't be possible in real life.

[The_Mothman]

Knowing these dumbasses, they'll probably try to go back in time or some shit. Not right away, of course, but in the future.

[AuronClark]

Systematic error. Happens all the time. Literally.

[WentToPasalacqua]

Ah, neutrinos. Now, after having done a little bit of background research on what a neutrino is and all of the factors that go into this; there is going to have to be a lot more testing done before we can come to any conclusions. They're going to have to check and recheck every variable in that experiment, and obviously retest. I don't think that it's impossible. Humans have been wrong about things before, and if everything checks out...this might just go to show us that humans really don't know as much as we thought we did.

[AuronClark]

They're going to have to check and recheck every variable in that experiment, and obviously retest.

They did that several thousand times. Had you done any background research you would know that.

I don't think that it's impossible. Humans have been wrong about things before

You reason "humans have been wrong before" doesn't support your conclusion that it's possible.

Think about it in this sense:
p1 I've been wrong before.
p2 I believe 2+2=4
C1 I might be wrong about 2+2=4 because I've been wrong about other things.

Spot the fallacy!


However, my reason for why it might be possible is that photons might have a tiny bit of mass and thus might be travelling at slightly below C, is a valid hypothesis that can be explored.

this might just go to show us that humans really don't know as much as we thought we did.

In the same sense that I might find a winning lottery ticket on the ground while walking to class tomorrow.

It's almost certainly this:

Systematic error. Happens all the time. Literally.

[Armegeddon]

HOWEVER! It could also be a legitimate result. Let's be cautiously optimistic and wait for more testing. Most likely it is error, but be open to the idea that we may be onto some great.

Also, photons DO have mass; however, this is rest mass and is due to the photon's momentum, not because of any inherent mass like we have. Neutrinos have actual mass.

[Ryanzmw]

HOWEVER! It could also be a legitimate result. Let's be cautiously optimistic and wait for more testing. Most likely it is error, but be open to the idea that we may be onto some great.

Also, photons DO have mass; however, this is rest mass and is due to the photon's momentum, not because of any inherent mass like we have. Neutrinos have actual mass.

The general relationship between ("rest") mass, energy and momentum is


E² =(m₀ c² )² +(pc)²
which works for both "ordinary" particles and for photons (for which m₀ =0 ).