'We have broken speed of light'

[Laq]

Nice article that gives you plenty of material to speculate and think about !!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/08/16/scispeed116.xml

What do you guys think of this?

 

[AJ_Dual]

The scientists were investigating a phenomenon called quantum tunnelling, which allows sub-atomic particles to break apparently unbreakable laws.

That's all you need to know right there.

Quantum tunneling has been known to have been instantaneous for some time now. I suppose they managed to demonstrate the effect in a new and exciting way.

However, using quantum tunneling to convey complex meaningful information at FTL speeds, and thus violate Einsteinian causality is a whole other ballgame.

Einstien called quantum physics "Spooky action, at a distance." and was very upset by it's implications at first. (like the laser slit experiment, etc.) However, what I find even more bone chilling is how all of the quantum/FTL "loopholes"  seem to have yet another layer of underlying principles that prevents them from violating General Relativity in any meaninful way on the macro scale.

 

[Frosty]

The scientists were investigating a phenomenon called quantum tunnelling, which allows sub-atomic particles to break apparently unbreakable laws.

That's all you need to know right there.

Quantum tunneling has been known to have been instantaneous for some time now. I suppose they managed to demonstrate the effect in a new and exciting way.

However, using quantum tunneling to convey complex meaningful information at FTL speeds, and thus violate Einsteinian causality is a whole other ballgame.

Einstien called quantum physics "Spooky action, at a distance." and was very upset by it's implications at first. (like the laser slit experiment, etc.) However, what I find even more bone chilling is how all of the quantum/FTL "loopholes"  seem to have yet another layer of underlying principles that prevents them from violating General Relativity in any meaninful way on the macro scale.

What was the Laser Slit experiment?

 

[Tallaxo]

well I think Einstein called it "spooky" because he didn't understand it and it didn't fit any of his theories. If he were to accept such possibilities then he would be undoing his own lifetime of work.
The man was surely a genius, way ahead of his time, but the fact remains that we are barely scratching the surface on the mysteries of quantum mechanics, and that is decades after his death.

Quantum mechanics require a leap of faith to believe the unbelievable and to accept the possibilities of the impossible.

Like the fact that you can predict an electrons velocity but cannot know where it is in space , or vice versa you can predict an electrons position in space but cannot know its velocity.

Or in a perfect Vacuum, where no matter exists, well actually it does. matter is formed suddenly from energy, with a corresponding anti matter particle, they both cancel each other out and anihalate each other, reverting back to energy but also imparting a measureable force. (free energy anyone?)

I think we are on the cusp of beginning to understand some of these almost "magical" phenomena and where that will take us is probably beyond imagination. Free energy, faster than light travel, manipulation of the fourth dimension?(Time).

Food for thought.


EDIT: For those wishing to blow your minds, take a look at this flash animation allowing you to visualise the old belief of 10 dimensions. (it is now currently thought that the universe contains 11 dimensions) but this is a fantastic animation to give you a taster of what quantum dimensions are all about.

Note: a vivid imagination is required to get the most out of this.

Please enjoy.

http://www.tenthdimension.com/medialinks.php

Jase

 

[AJ_Dual]

LOL. I think Einstien thought quantum mechanics was "spooky" simply because it is spooky!  :-/

Watch this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfPeprQ7oGc To see an explanation of the famous slit experiment.

You can do it yourself at home with your own lasers. The very last part about the act of observing collapsing the wave function of the wave-particle duallity is harder, but I assure you it's true...

In my book, dat's SPOOKY...

God? God? Is that you? Why are you laughing?...  

 

[Merlous]

tallaxo nice link.

I don't think this is going to effect us anytime soon........

 

[Laq]

So much interesting and mindblowing information in quantum mechanics. Spooky, maybe.. interesting? hell yeah !

Very good documentary movie you must have seen is: what the bleep do we know ! and part 2 down the rabbit hole.
http://www.whatthebleep.com/

if you didn't see it yet, you definitly have to ! youtube has the movie split up in 10 pieces:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpCSk7WC4GI&mode=related&search=
you have to find/click the following parts yourself,. all on youtube to see complete documentary movie.

(by the way, that dr. quantum animation is from the sequal to this documentary movie called "down the rabbit hole" also to be found on youtube)

I really have his movie in my top 3 of must see movies.. its gives you so much brainfood to think over reality for days in a row ! love it !! :

 

[corim123]

Yea the 11 dimensions that 7 are curled up in string theory and if we had another amount of loose dimensions we would not be hear to observe it through anthropic principle.

 

[benthegeek]

What was the Laser Slit experiment?

Well, if you take a laser beam (coherent light) and pass it through two very narrow slits that are reasonably close together then the light exiting the slit will act like two coherent sources of light and their waves will interfere to produce a pattern called an interference pattern. This is perfectly reasonable if you think of light as a wave. But, light can be thought of as BOTH a particle and a wave. If you try and think of it as a a particle then you get some mind boggling stuff.

Take the exact same experiment but turn your laser down so much that it only emits one photon at a time (a photon is the particle definition of light). If you leave the setup on long enough then the exact same interference pattern occurs. This seems weird. How does one photon go through two slits at the same tme to interfere and produce the same pattern. It looks like it goes through both, but if you try and measure which one it goes through, the interference pattern disapears. You change the result by measuring it even if the measurment is done at a point that has no classical effect on the experiment. Say, at a point after the interference pattern.

Even Eeinstein, as mentioned above called it spooky. It upset him, but due to the duel nature in which light behaves in nature we must take it as what happens. Another famous quote was "Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it" Niels Bohr.

As for the article, these people seem to think it is wrong: h t t p : / / arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070816-faster-than-the-speed-of-light-no-i-dont-think-so.html

 

[Frosty]

Wow that is some very nutty stuff!!!

its simply wild that the act of observing itself has an impact on the results! So does this hint that there are even more frequencies we have not yet begun to grasp?


And is this the principal that makes diffraction gratings work? or do they just have really tiny lines?

Any tips for setting up a slit expieriment/demonstration of my own?

 

[steve001]

Wow that is some very nutty stuff!!
Yes it is.

its simply wild that the act of observing itself has an impact on the results! So does this hint that there are even more frequencies we have not yet begun to grasp?
No


And is this the principal that makes diffraction gratings work? or do they just have really tiny lines?
No. Yes

Any tips for setting up a slit expieriment/demonstration of my own?
There's this great resource at your finger tips use that to find out more information about the two slit experiment. Here's one to start
http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/schroedinger/two-slit2.html

 

[Sniper]

my mind has been blown.

 

[millionaire]

thats messed