Here’s an update to the recent claim that particles had been observed traveling faster than the speed of light.
Faster-Than-Light Neutrino Update of the Day: The CERN experiment that recorded a faster-than-light neutrino last month may have been invalidated.Scientists at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands have come up with a very Einsteinian explanation of what happened: the GPS satellites measuring the moving neutrinos were also moving, and the experiment didn’t correct for that relative motion.
If you assume those satellites are subject to Einstein’s theories, the scientists say, the potential error they introduce is 64 nanoseconds. That’s just a bit bigger than the margin of error reported in the CERN experiment. Conclusion? The neutrino was moving at or close to, but not exceeding, the speed of light.
Looks like you win again, Einstein.
http://geeks.thedailywh.at/2011/10/17/faster-than-light-neutrino-update-of-the-day/
Always trust Einstein.
![jtotheizzoe:
Gravity May Have Thrown Off Faster-Than-Light Neutrino Calculations
The Earth has variable gravity (as seen in the “lumpy” image above) that you and I can’t feel. But could the faster-than-light neutrino experiments have been doomed by omitting this? From Forbes:
In any good heist, synchronized watches are essential for determining timing, so that a precision plan can go off without a hitch. Similarly, the clocks in a speed measurement need to be synchronized to ensure that velocity is calculated correctly. The basic problem with OPERA’s calculations, Contaldi suggests, is that the clocks used to measure the neutrinos’ velocity weren’t properly synchronized.
In the case of the faster-than light measurements, the clocks were synchronized using GPS timestamps. But, argues Contaldi, that’s not good enough. That’s because the gravity on different places on the Earth isn’t constant. The gravity at the CERN site where the neutrinos left, for example, is actually slightly greater than the gravity at the OPERA detector site. As a consequence, time would appear to move more slowly at CERN from the vantage point of the OPERA detector. Failing to take this into account, Contaldi contends, means that “[t]he resulting measurement that the neutrino velocity differs from c is not only unsurprising but should be expected in their setup.”
(via Forbes)](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lswyyvTSN91qbh26io1_500.jpg)
Gravity May Have Thrown Off Faster-Than-Light Neutrino Calculations
The Earth has variable gravity (as seen in the “lumpy” image above) that you and I can’t feel. But could the faster-than-light neutrino experiments have been doomed by omitting this? From Forbes:
In any good heist, synchronized watches are essential for determining timing, so that a precision plan can go off without a hitch. Similarly, the clocks in a speed measurement need to be synchronized to ensure that velocity is calculated correctly. The basic problem with OPERA’s calculations, Contaldi suggests, is that the clocks used to measure the neutrinos’ velocity weren’t properly synchronized.
In the case of the faster-than light measurements, the clocks were synchronized using GPS timestamps. But, argues Contaldi, that’s not good enough. That’s because the gravity on different places on the Earth isn’t constant. The gravity at the CERN site where the neutrinos left, for example, is actually slightly greater than the gravity at the OPERA detector site. As a consequence, time would appear to move more slowly at CERN from the vantage point of the OPERA detector. Failing to take this into account, Contaldi contends, means that “[t]he resulting measurement that the neutrino velocity differs from c is not only unsurprising but should be expected in their setup.”
(via Forbes)
Faster-than-light neutrinos could be proof of extra dimensions
The recent announcement that neutrinos had been observed seemingly going faster than the speed of light sent shockwaves through the physics community. But there’s one possible explanation that could keep Einstein’s relativity intact and open up a whole new cosmos.
