Monday, January 11, 2010

Special Relativity Violated



"You can imagine that I look back on my life's work with calm satisfaction. But from nearby it looks quite different. There is not a single concept of which I am convinced that it will stand firm, and I feel uncertain whether I am in general on the right track." -- Albert Einstein, mathematician, March 1949

"Special relativity was the result of 10 years of intellectual struggle, yet Einstein had convinced himself it was wrong within two years of publishing it. He had rejected his theory, even before most physicists had come to accept it." -- Lee Smolin, physicist, 2004

Physics World: Pulsar bursts move 'faster than light'.

Every physicist is taught that information cannot be transmitted faster than the speed of light. Yet laboratory experiments done over the last 30 years clearly show that some things appear to break this speed limit.... ...

Using the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, they took radio data of the pulsar PSR B1937+21 at 1420.4 MHz with a 1.5 MHz bandwidth for three days. Oddly, those pulses close to the centre value arrived earlier than would be expected given the pulsar's normal timing, and therefore appeared to have travelled faster than the speed of light.
I predict the crackpots will be falling over each other out of the woodwork proclaiming that Relativity has been "proven" to be correct, without even bothering to understand why light can travel faster than the alleged constant c.

6 comments:

Quantum_Flux said...

The magnetic permeability of free space and the dielectric constant of a vacuum could perhaps be variant throughout space.

Jeffery Keown said...

Oils:
Oddly, those pulses close to the centre value arrived earlier than would be expected given the pulsar's normal timing, and therefore appeared to have travelled faster than the speed of light.I predict the crackpots will be falling over each other out of the woodwork proclaiming that Relativity has been "proven" to be correct, without even bothering to understand why light can travel faster than the alleged constant c.


It doesn't take that long... all one has to do is read the fucking article.

To wit:
However, the energy of the pulse still travels at the speed of light, which means that information is transferred in agreement with Einstein's theory.

KV said...

OIM,

Can you explain this using Euclidean Geometry?

OilIsMastery said...

KV,

Absolutely.

"Let the following be postulated: ... Postulate 2: To produce a finite straight line continuously in a straight line." -- Euclid, geometer, 3rd century B.C.

KV said...

OIM,

Postulate 2 states that you can extend a straight line forever, provided that:

You know you have a straight line,

and,

You are in Euclidian space.

What is a straight line and what is an Eclidian space?

Anonymous said...

Your Point Is?