The faster-than-light tag has no wiki summary.
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Superluminal neutrinos
I was quite surprised to read this all over the news today:
Elusive, nearly massive subatomic particles called neutrinos appear to travel just faster than light, a team of physicists in Europe ...
25
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1answer
495 views
Neutrinos vs. Photons: Who wins the race across the galaxy?
Inspired by the wording of this answer, a thought occurred to me. If a photon and a neutrino were to race along a significant stretch of our actual galaxy, which would win the race?
Now, neutrinos ...
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12answers
2k views
Is it possible for information to be transmitted faster than light by using a rigid pole?
Is it possible for information (like 1 and 0s) to be transmitted faster than light?
For instance, take a rigid pole of several AU in length. Now say you have a person on each end, and one of them ...
16
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4answers
2k views
Why is the universe so big?
The Universe is approximately 13.7 billion years old. But yet it is 80 billion light years across. Isn't this a contradiction?
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6answers
4k views
What would be the effects on theoretical physics if neutrinos go faster than light?
Earlier today, I saw this link on Facebook about neutrinos going faster than the speed of light, and of course, re-posted. Since then, a couple of my friends have gotten into a discussion about what ...
15
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2answers
1k views
What happened to the idea of tachyonic or other superluminal neutrinos?
While hunting around for information about the recent OPERA measurement that hints at superluminal neutrinos, I discovered that this idea was actually considered back in the 1980s. Wikipedia lists as ...
13
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4answers
453 views
Thought experiment regarding an object approaching a mirror
Here's a thought experiment I came up with in class today when my mind drifted (I however highly doubt I'm the first to think about this since it is pretty rudimentary) :
Let's say superman ...
12
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3answers
91 views
If neutrinos travel faster than light, how much lead time would we have over detecting supernovas?
In light of the recent story that neutrinos travel faster than photons, I realize the news about this is sensationalistic and many tests still remain, but let's ASSUME neutrinos are eventually proven ...
11
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5answers
701 views
Is there such a thing as “Action at a distance”?
What ever happened to "action at a distance" in entangled quantum states, i.e. the Einstein-Rosen-Podolsky (EPR) paradox? I thought they argued that in principle one could communicate faster than ...
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4answers
1k views
Travelling faster than the speed of light
Let's say I fire a bus through space at the speed of light. If I'm inside the bus (sitting on the back seat) and I run up the aisle of the bus will I in fact be traveling faster than the speed of ...
10
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4answers
2k views
Einstein's special relativity beyond the speed of light
Could someone with access to this paper which claims to have new transformations between frames with relative motion faster than light which are supposedly consistent with special-relativity, say what ...
9
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2answers
706 views
Is the “How to break the speed of light” minute physics video wrong?
I am referring to this video, on YouTube, by minutephysics, which has quite a lot of views.
In the video it states that if you flick your wrist while pointing a laser that reaches the moon, that the ...
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4answers
678 views
In superluminal phase velocities, what is it that is traveling faster than light?
I understand that information cannot be transmitted at a velocity greater than speed of light. I think of this in terms of the radio broadcast: the station sends out carrier frequencies $\omega_c$ but ...
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7answers
926 views
Rotate a long bar in space and get close to (or even beyond) the speed of light $c$
Imagine a bar
spinning like a helicopter propeller,
At $\omega$ rad/s because the extremes of the bar goes at speed
$$V = \omega * r$$
then we can reach near $c$ (speed of light)
applying some ...
7
votes
3answers
606 views
What are some scenarios where FTL information transfer would violate causality?
I've always heard people saying, "Faster than light information transfer can't happen because it would violate causality! Effects can precede their causes!"
However, I'm trying to think of a ...
6
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4answers
753 views
Double light speed
Let's say we have 2 participles facing each other and traveling at speed of light
Let's say I'm sitting on #1 participle so in my point of view #2 participle's speed is c+c=2c, double light speed? ...
6
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3answers
508 views
Special Relativity and $E = mc^2$
I read somewhere that $E=mc^2$ shows that if something was to travel faster than the speed of light then they would have infinite mass and would have used infinite energy.
How does the equation show ...
6
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3answers
315 views
Can something travel faster than light if it has always been travelling faster than light?
I know there are zillions of questions about faster than light travel, but please hear me out. According to special relativity, it is impossible to accelerate something to the speed of light. However, ...
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3answers
704 views
Alcubierre Drive - Clarification on relativistic effects
On the Wikipedia article on the Alcubierre drive, it says:
Since the ship is not moving within this bubble, but carried along as the region itself moves, conventional relativistic effects such as ...
6
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3answers
274 views
Controllable faster-than-light phase velocity
This is not another question about faster-than-light travel or superluminal communication. I totally appreciate the speed limit capped by physical laws (or theories.)
Just curious, since there is no ...
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0answers
87 views
Status of experimental searches for tachyons?
Now that the dust has settled on the 2011 superluminal neutrino debacle at OPERA, I'm interested in understanding the current status of experimental searches for neutrinos. Although the OPERA claim ...
5
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3answers
635 views
How can neutrinos “beat light”?
Article in the CERN newsletter "symmetry breaking" has the following statement:
"Neutrinos are often the first particles to bring news of events in space to Earth, beating even light.". What does this ...
5
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3answers
398 views
Does entanglement not immediately contradict the theory of special relativity?
Does entanglement not immediately contradict the theory of special relativity? Why are people still so convinced nothing can travel faster than light when we are perfectly aware of something that ...
5
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3answers
3k views
Quantum entanglement faster than speed of light?
recently i was watching a video on quantum computing where the narrators describes that quantum entanglement information travels faster than light!
Is it really possible for anything to move faster ...
5
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2answers
242 views
What if a faster-than-light particle is found?
What will be the consequence (severe ones) on laws of physics if a particle that travels faster than light is discovered?
I am looking for a more general answer so that a high school student would be ...
5
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2answers
241 views
Did anyone claim that quantum theory meant lasers would never work
I've been reading 'How the Hippies saved Physics', which describes a design for a superluminal communication device, of which the crucial part was a laser which duplicated an incoming photon many ...
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2answers
309 views
Does quantum mechanics allow faster than light (FTL) travel?
Let's suppose I initially have a particle with a nice and narrow wave function[1] (I will leave these unnormed):
$$e^{-\frac{x^2}{a}}$$
where $a$ is some small number (to make it narrow). Let's also ...
5
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1answer
144 views
variable speed of light in cosmology
In this paper, D. H. Coule argues that warp drive metrics, like the one proposed by Alcubierre, require the exotic matter to be laid beforehand on the travel path by conventional travel. At section 5 ...
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3answers
422 views
How can a quasar be 29 billion light-years away from Earth if Big Bang happened only 13.8 billion years ago?
I was reading through the Wikipedia article on Quasars and came across the fact that the most distant Quasar is 29 Billion Light years. This is what the article exactly says
The highest redshift ...
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4answers
500 views
When the speed of light has been measured, recently?
Yes, it is weird, absurd, but I can't stop thinking that the would-be superluminal
neutrino speed has been computed by an arithmetic operation (space/time) and not by direct comparison with a ...
4
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2answers
162 views
Can a dot of light travel faster than the speed of light? [duplicate]
Say I have a laser. If I spin the laser so that the beam sweeps in an arc along a very distant object, could that dot travel faster than the speed of light?
In Diagram form:
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2answers
415 views
Is 2.5x speed of light possible between two objects?
These news are in Finnish:
http://www.hs.fi/ulkomaat/Kaukaisin+havaittu+galaksi+et%C3%A4%C3%A4ntyy+maasta+valoa+nopeammin/a1305618680897
The main excerpt is:
"Distant galaxy moves away from us as ...
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7answers
410 views
Information relationship to Special Relativity
How do we write mathematically that "information" cannot go faster than light? And along a similar line of thought, how do we relate "information" with special relativity. Lastly, what is the ...
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3answers
363 views
How does faster than light travel violate causality?
Let's say I have two planets that are one hundred thousand lightyears away from each other. I and my immortal friend on the other planet want to communicate, with a strong laser and a tachyon ...
4
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1answer
173 views
Will acceleration rate of expansion of space become faster than speed of light?
From watching cosmology lectures, it seems that the space between galaxies is expanding at an accelerating rate, my question is since it is the space that is (acceleratingly expanding), the special ...
4
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4answers
673 views
Variation of delayed choice quantum eraser
Let me base the discussion on the pictorial description of the delayed choice quantum eraser experiment on wikipedia.
First suppose that we do precisely the same thing with the lower parts of the ...
4
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1answer
237 views
Detecting coherence
Is there a way to know if a particle is acting as a wave or a particle? Alternatively, if an entangled particle was already measured?
A - Yes
So any experiment over an entangled particle that let ...
4
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2answers
396 views
Consequences for causality if superluminal neutrinos were explained by extra dimensions
One suggestion for explaining superluminal neutrinos (assuming for the sake of argument that the OPERA results should hold up) is that the neutrinos have taken a route through extra dimensions, with ...
3
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2answers
112 views
Extended Rigid Bodies in Special Relativity
I was reading Landau & Lifhsitz's Classical Field Theory and I noticed that they mention that an extended rigid body isn't "relativistically correct".
For example, if you consider a rigid rod ...
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3answers
1k views
Harold White's work on the Alcubierre warp drive
I've read a bit on Harold White's recent work. (A paper on Nasa's site) I haven't been able to find any comments by people claiming to know anything about the physics involved. Is this really serious? ...
3
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2answers
800 views
If I move a long solid stick can I send message fastest than light? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Is it possible for information to be transmitted faster than light?
I mean by using a perfect solid stick long enough and moving it forward and backward can I send ...
3
votes
1answer
72 views
Diameter of the universe [duplicate]
Should the diameter of our universe always be more than its age in light years?
As if the distance between any two points in the universe is equal to 13.5 billion light years then the light from the ...
3
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2answers
455 views
Is quantum entanglement functionally equivalent to a measurement?
I saw the following talk the other day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEaecUuEqfc&feature=share
In it, Dr. Ron Garret posits that entanglement isn't really that "special" of a property. He ...
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2answers
221 views
A simple thought experiment about traversable wormholes
Let's say I have a tube, of large radius (about 5 - 7 meters in diameter), with traversable wormholes at the ends. The wormholes are arranged as such that if something falls inside one hole from ...
3
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2answers
98 views
Superluminal particles with causality
What kind of CLASSICAL theories would allow to true (non-apparent) superluminal particles (beyond speed of light, BSOL) agreeing with causality to exist? I mean, are causal superluminal classical ...
3
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0answers
95 views
Would warp bubbles emit gravitational Cerenkov radiation in general relativity?
Inspired by the gravtiomagnetic analogy, I would expect that just as a charged tachyon would emit normal (electromagetic) Cerenkov radiation, any mass-carrying warp drive would emit gravitational ...
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5answers
424 views
Special Relativity Second Postulate
That the speed of light is constant for all inertial frames is the second postulate of special relativity but this does not means that nothing can travel faster than light.
so is it possible the ...
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3answers
364 views
If it turns out that neutrinos do travel at faster than lightspeed, how will the success of special relativity be explained?
As per in the title. If it turns out that neutrinos do travel faster than the speed of light, how will the success of special relativity be explained? My apologies if this has been asked before; I've ...
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2answers
280 views
Is it possible to have faster-than-light movement in General Relativity?
The speed of light as the maximal possible speed is build into Special Relativity as a premise of the theory. However I know of no such premise in General Relativity. When looking at two stars laying ...
2
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1answer
225 views
How 'Faster Than Light' Neutrino Was Product of Loose Cable at CERN?
A "faster than light" neutrino discovery was actually the result of a loose cable.
A fiber-optic cable in a GPS receiver at the European Center for Particle Physics ( CERN) near Geneva
Can someone ...
