Saturday 24 September 2011

Speed of Light?

So scientists at Cern have found that neutrinos can exceed the speed of light. According to reports they have carried out the experiment 16000 times, and they always arrive at 0.00000006 seconds before expected. Now, as insignificant as that sounds this really could be one of the most ground breaking discoveries of the past decade. If a particle, no matter how small, can travel at faster than the speed of light, then this totally rewrites the majority of the physics text books.

I have to remain skeptical though because of the sheer number of factors that can cause errors. When dealing with these kinds of numbers, the sheer amount of precision needed is mind blowing. The three kinds of errors being discussed so far are distance errors, time of flight errors, and errors in the timing of the production of neutrinos. All errors have been discussed at length and still, currently, don't account for this incredible discovery.

Now I am far from an expert on particle physics, but the thing that interests me the most relates to chemistry. It is well documented that electrons can act as both particles and waves. One of the ideas that I have found quite hard to get my head around is that electrons can be found in any number of their own energy levels, but are never found between them. This is a bit like saying that you are filmed traveling between points A and B and the film documents you leaving A and arriving at B but you are NEVER found between A and B. So if other particles are able to travel faster than the speed of light, then would that mean that they arrive before the light has time to effectively catch up, thus explaining the above? If anyone can shed some light on this idea, then please let me know!

For those who find all this boring, or just plain pointless, next time you use your Sat-Nav, or tag your location in Facebook using your GPS enabled phone, have a little think about how, without the speed of light being known, you wouldn't have any of those things.

To finish heres a little cartoon about how this discovery is in its infancy, and a small pinch of salt might be needed for a while yet.




No comments:

Post a Comment