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The Speed of Light Broken -- By Radio Waves
- Thread starter mikepc
- Start date
Kevin Daly
Skilled Investigator
OK, not so much broken as bent a bit, but still very cool.
I wonder if that could be used to communicate with spacecraft? If so it would be a big step forward for both unmanned and manned Mars expeditions.
I wonder if that could be used to communicate with spacecraft? If so it would be a big step forward for both unmanned and manned Mars expeditions.
T
themacx
Guest
this is not new:
'We have broken speed of light' - Telegraph
and;
Speed of light broken with basic lab kit - 16 September 2002 - New Scientist
and back in 2000;
SPACE.com -- Scientists Claim To Break Speed-of-Light Barrier
Now the fist man to get a ticked for speeding at the speed of light that would be a first!
'We have broken speed of light' - Telegraph
and;
Speed of light broken with basic lab kit - 16 September 2002 - New Scientist
and back in 2000;
SPACE.com -- Scientists Claim To Break Speed-of-Light Barrier
Now the fist man to get a ticked for speeding at the speed of light that would be a first!
The media has a short-term memory. 
T
themacx
Guest
yeah like what ever happened with that quantum computer already up and running in Switserland (calculating our debt?), but a good point was made here, this is very usefull for space communication.The media has a short-term memory.
DamnDirtyApe
Skilled Investigator
The speed of light in (in a vacum) has not actually been surpassed in the proper sense of the word. It's not surprising that articles like that don't fully explain the subject but rely on catchy buzzwords to generate interest.
from a dedicated physics forum:
That article is not talking in enough detail to really say anything definitive about how it works.
My personal guess is that the device utilizes some rotating field with a phase velocity greater than c (which as schroder has pointed out is nothing new or special) which is probably the "polarizer" part of the "polarization synchrotron". I also wouldn’t mind betting that this is the only part of it that relates to being faster than c.
Looking at the proposed applications of what they have achieved it appears that it most likely relates to some kind of new technique in narrow beam forming and that the actual radiation it produces does not travel faster than c (that's my best bet anyway).
If this is the case then the most likely explanation for the overwhelming emphasis of the "faster than light" aspect in the article is that it overly impressed some science journalist who didn't know any better (or if he did know better he just focused on this aspect to "beat up" the story).
also..
So the emission itself is not superluminal and this coordinated motion stuff sounds pretty similar to the phase velocity concept. That does not really sound spectacular.
I agree with that assessment. I found another paper by John Singleton (the same scientist mentioned in the article) concerning this research. Here is a brief abstract:
Moving sources of electromagnetic radiation whose speeds exceed the speed of light in
vacuo have already been generated in the laboratory [1–4]. These sources arise from sep-
aration of charges: their superluminally moving distribution patterns are created by the
coordinated motion of aggregates of subluminally moving particles. A polarization current
density is, however, on the same footing as the current density of free charges in the Amp´ere-Maxwell equation, so that the propagating distribution patterns of such polarization currents radiate, as would any other moving sources of the electromagnetic field.
It is clear that he is talking about a superluminal rotating source (the polarization synchrotron) but the wave that is emitted is not superluminal. The advantage is the rapid phase combining in the source’s rotating field which results in the emission of an extremely narrow and powerful beam. While there is no doubt such highly focused beams would be very useful for satellite and deep space communications, I don’t think we will be seeing it incorporated in cell phones any time soon, judging from the size of the apparatus in the photo! But it is very interesting work.
So sorry.. no fundamental upheaval of physics yet, just another overhyped story.
from a dedicated physics forum:
That article is not talking in enough detail to really say anything definitive about how it works.
My personal guess is that the device utilizes some rotating field with a phase velocity greater than c (which as schroder has pointed out is nothing new or special) which is probably the "polarizer" part of the "polarization synchrotron". I also wouldn’t mind betting that this is the only part of it that relates to being faster than c.
Looking at the proposed applications of what they have achieved it appears that it most likely relates to some kind of new technique in narrow beam forming and that the actual radiation it produces does not travel faster than c (that's my best bet anyway).
If this is the case then the most likely explanation for the overwhelming emphasis of the "faster than light" aspect in the article is that it overly impressed some science journalist who didn't know any better (or if he did know better he just focused on this aspect to "beat up" the story).
also..
So the emission itself is not superluminal and this coordinated motion stuff sounds pretty similar to the phase velocity concept. That does not really sound spectacular.
I agree with that assessment. I found another paper by John Singleton (the same scientist mentioned in the article) concerning this research. Here is a brief abstract:
Moving sources of electromagnetic radiation whose speeds exceed the speed of light in
vacuo have already been generated in the laboratory [1–4]. These sources arise from sep-
aration of charges: their superluminally moving distribution patterns are created by the
coordinated motion of aggregates of subluminally moving particles. A polarization current
density is, however, on the same footing as the current density of free charges in the Amp´ere-Maxwell equation, so that the propagating distribution patterns of such polarization currents radiate, as would any other moving sources of the electromagnetic field.
It is clear that he is talking about a superluminal rotating source (the polarization synchrotron) but the wave that is emitted is not superluminal. The advantage is the rapid phase combining in the source’s rotating field which results in the emission of an extremely narrow and powerful beam. While there is no doubt such highly focused beams would be very useful for satellite and deep space communications, I don’t think we will be seeing it incorporated in cell phones any time soon, judging from the size of the apparatus in the photo! But it is very interesting work.
So sorry.. no fundamental upheaval of physics yet, just another overhyped story.
bsvalley
paranormal master
I know I am going to regret asking this question and I will show you how dumb I am. But , I'm confused about a couple of things and maybe someone can explain it so someone like me can understand it.this is not new:
'We have broken speed of light' - Telegraph
and;
Speed of light broken with basic lab kit - 16 September 2002 - New Scientist
and back in 2000;
SPACE.com -- Scientists Claim To Break Speed-of-Light Barrier
Now the fist man to get a ticked for speeding at the speed of light that would be a first!
the first thing I don't understand is that these three example posted here still talk about light being sent "faster than light" (god I feel dumb).
So isn't that just setting a new "speed of light"?
Or do they only measure the speed of light in it's natural state?
and I'm not even going to ask the other question till I see the response to this one. Yes it's true. I am NOT a scientist.
but I would love to carry one around with me