German physicists have “broken the speed of light”

Thursday, Aug. 16 2007 | Author: Michael

According to the UK’s Telegraph, two German Scientists have broken the speed of light – a feat that some thought previously to be impossible. If this proves to be true, and can be duplicated – it will “undermine our entire understanding of space and time”.

According to Einstein’s special theory of relativity, it would require an infinite amount of energy to propel an object at more than 186,000 miles per second.

However, Dr Gunter Nimtz and Dr Alfons Stahlhofen, of the University of Koblenz, say they may have breached a key tenet of that theory.

The pair say they have conducted an experiment in which microwave photons – energetic packets of light – travelled “instantaneously” between a pair of prisms that had been moved up to 3ft apart.

Don’t expect Warp Drive just yet or anything, but if (again, IF) this turns out to be true…it could change the world.

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9 Responses for "German physicists have “broken the speed of light”"

Not a scientist

August 16th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
1

I’m no scientist, but I’d imagine this is just another molasses/water type thing. You’ll swim through molasses quicker than you’ll swim through water, and apparently light can swim through (insert vacuum, element, lack of whatever) quicker than it swims through whatever space is made of.
Not a scientist

August 16th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
2

(correction) you’ll swim through water quicker than you’ll swim through molasses.
Mayhem

August 16th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
3

Space is made of a vacuum.
Mac

August 16th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
4

There were similar announcements few years ago, but this was about causing tip of a light wave to travel faster than light (which is nothing strange, since “tip of a wave” is not a physical object but rather conceptual thing). No information could be transferred faster than c because of these experiments then.
But if I understand, this is something big. They do claim to have transferred quantum information faster than light.
Could it be? I am quite sure that science has reached some tipping point these days.
Qbit

August 17th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
5

So, if 1 mile = 5,280 ft
186,000 miles per second (Mps) is the speed of light
the two prisms were 3 ft apart

that means it would have to travel more than 27,280,000 inches per second (ips). Isn’t that a very very difficult thing to measure? If the measurement is off by even 1000 ips it wouldn’t be faster than the speed of light. To reach the speed of light is something drastically different than surpassing it.
Grant M. White

August 18th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
6

Have you tried bombarding the prisms or a vacuum that the light is going through with very powerful pulsating opposing N or S magnatism in order to create intermited tares in the time space continunuum thus crating pulsating worm holes that would simulate surpassing the speed of light?
ap

August 19th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
7

I agree with Qbit; there’s no way for these physicists to measure something so intricate without error.

To Grant: No, I haven’t tried
dd

August 20th, 2007 at 7:39 pm
8

apparntly poo travells faster then the speed of light so go back to the drawing board eintstein
A.B.

July 21st, 2009 at 11:38 pm
9

pls……….why doesnt anyone understand……nothing else other than maybe light can exceed its own speed………………but the truth is even i believe and want some thing to exceed the speed of light………..

but wat the scientist find are…..quite a bit stupid i would say…..

a microwave….itself is a light..a different frequency………..and am not surprised it travels the speed of light….when radio waves can…why cant microwaves….and go back to our basics..light consists of different…frequencies, wavelengths, spectrums……we r bieng stupid proving that……………..light goes at light speed huh………………..