Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Can Relativity Explain Faster Than Light Particles?

Posted by timothy on from the old-woman-your-lap-for-a-minute dept.

gbrumfiel writes "Two weeks ago, researchers claimed particles called neutrinos were travelling faster-than-light and violating the laws of special relativity. But now it looks as though general relativity might be behind the experiment's unusual result. An independent analysis claims that the original experiment, known as OPERA, failed to take into account differences in earth's gravitational field between the neutrino source and the OPERA detector. As Nature News reports, gravity can distort time according to Einstein's theory, and the effect could explain why neutrinos appear to arrive 60 nanoseconds ahead of schedule. The OPERA team is now reviewing the new analysis."

7 of 315 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Now we know why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    c++

  2. Dear CERN, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Nice try.

    Sincerely,
    Einstein

  3. Re:Seriously? by Bucky24 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I hate to say this, because I know it's probably painfully obvious to most people, but I have no idea what you're talking about.

    --
    All the world's a CPU, and all the men and women merely AI agents
  4. Re:Now we know why by idontgno · · Score: 4, Funny

    They didn't have to raise the speed of light; they just raised it a semitone.

    That's right. The universal constant for the speed of light is c#.

    --
    Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
  5. Re:I'm impressed by edumacator · · Score: 3, Funny

    I worked it out half way.

    Then I worked out half of the remaining math.

    Then I...

    --
    An important change for education.
  6. Re:Now we know why by John+Bresnahan · · Score: 4, Funny

    If C# is now the speed of light- does that mean that Java exceeds the speed of light?

    No, Java is still slow.

  7. Re:I called it by TeknoHog · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's explained by Rudolf the Redshift Reindeer.

    --
    Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.