No Speeding Please

           A few years ago (September 2011), a report from CERN caused great havoc in the understanding of the world of physics. Scientists at the CERN measured neutrinos to have traveled a set distance 60 nanoseconds faster than light.


          This finding, if true, would have upended almost everything modern physics was built on since 1905 and Einstein's theories; these neutrinos, if observed from a adequately fast reference frame, could theoretically be observed arriving at a location BEFORE being observed leaving (reversing time!). Paradoxes that were thought to be explained away would also crop up. If an observer standing far away from an intersection on one of the roads observed a car crash at night (with headlights on the two cars on), he would see something drastically different from the occupants of the vehicles! If the speed light could be exceeded, car A's "light" in the diagram below would arrive faster than car B's "light", as car B is traveling perpendicular to the observer and not "adding" any speed to its "light".

           What would this mean for the observer? It would mean that the observer would see car A enter the intersection before car B; the paradox therefore occurs in that how could there have possibly been a crash if the observer sees the cars arrive at the intersection at different time points? But, there must have been a crash if we are to believe the occupants of the vehicles (and from the theoretical injuries they sustained one would be inclined to do so).

             Fortunately, this paradox seems to remain just a thought experiment and physicists may rest easy as it was quickly discovered that faulty wiring in the testing equipment was the cause of these faster-than-light data at the CERN. The event was a good test on how science is to be done though; a fantastic discovery was heavily scrutinized by the scientific community, and repeated tests were already beginning to shed doubt on the initial results before the defect was discovered. One has to remember that theory gains its status through repeated observation and experiments, and in this case the theory of relativity stood its ground against a potential usurper.

Sources:
The Cosmic Perspective (Mastering Astronomy) p. 412-414
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/22/us-science-light-idUSTRE78L4FH20110922
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9100009/Scientists-did-not-break-speed-of-light-it-was-a-faulty-wire.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8901001/Speed-of-light-broken-again-as-scientists-test-neutrino-result.html