Relativity

[eccentrically1]

Speed of light may be constant (or not) but it is not infinite, since Willy Einstein purport's to have it caluculated down to ten zillion whatsits after the decimal point.

However, where we must be wrong is in that photons do not traverse most matter. They get absorbed (heat), deflected. If you switch on a light in a coiled tube and have an observer at the other end, the time the light takes to reach him will be longer than expected. Likewise with a tunnel of mirrors. Therefore, as we know F all about what really, definitely happens to photons over 160 000 or 1 600 000 years as they encounter all sorts of matter, and black holes which we know very little about, maybe even "antiphotons why not, if there is anti matter there might well be anti photons), the whole discussion about knowledge of the speed of light being of any use is hogwash. Or an interesting armchair philosopher come amateur astronomer bone of contention.

That's what happens when you try to imagine light having a property of "speed". It only has a "speed" because that's how we perceive light. From light's perspective, the distance either through the coiled tube or from the sun are the same, because the time taken (for light) is the same. If you could travel at the "speed" of light, you'd have the same perspective: time would stand still, and distances shrink to zero.

[ovyyus]

Bollocks indeed:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-17/e ... it/3895896

New research suggests that fast-moving neutrinos, which appeared to break one of Einstein's fundamental theories by travelling faster than the speed of light, actually keep within the universal speed limit after all.

Many scientists had been sceptical about the original measurements that flew in the face of Albert Einstein's 1905 Special Theory of Relativity, which states that nothing in the universe can travel faster than light - an assertion that underpins much of modern physics and cosmology.

The latest measurement of the subatomic particles' speed of flight from the CERN research centre in Geneva to Gran Sasso in central Italy contradicts the initial super-fast reading reported last September, which caused a scientific sensation.

Since then, more doubts have crept in about the claims, especially after news last month that the first finding from the so-called OPERA experiment may have been distorted by faulty cabling.

The new analysis was done by researchers working on a separate experiment called ICARUS. Using independent timing data and measuring seven neutrinos in the beam sent from CERN, they found the time was exactly consistent with the speed of light.

Sandro Centro, an expert in high-energy physics and spokesman for the ICARUS experiment, said he believed the results of the new tests were conclusive.

"The speed of light and speed of neutrinos are the same," he said in a telephone interview after the team's findings were published online on Friday.

The earlier controversial OPERA study had clocked neutrinos covering the 730 km from CERN to Gran Sasso 60 nanoseconds - or 60 billionths of a second - faster than light.

"The evidence is beginning to point towards the OPERA result being an artefact of the measurement," CERN research director Sergio Bertolucci said in a statement.

But he added that the scientific community needed to be rigorous and further tests were planned in May using more pulsed beams from CERN to provide the final verdict.

Reuters

[eccentrically1]

I saw this story on NPR. Einstein still rocks.

[eccentrically1]

And his cosmological constant may not have been the big mistake he thought it was:

http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/uni_matter.html