Major astrophysics discovery to be unveiled on Monday.

[Hayabusa Rider]

I ask because I have no clue what primordial gravitational waves are and their relevance to my life.

The link under your post explains what they are but their relevance in the sense of "will it give me more stuff" is unknown. That's the nature of basic research. We improve and increase our knowledge which leads to other insights which may be make for flying cars or whatever.

 

[norseamd]

so with the speed of light theories do they say that anything is prevented from going faster than the speed of light or that there is just no way to produce enough energy to go faster than light?

 

[TheSlamma]

What goes up didn't come down?

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

so with the speed of light theories do they say that anything is prevented from going faster than the speed of light or that there is just no way to produce enough energy to go faster than light?

It's the former.

There is an inherent speed limit woven into spacetime and that is only reached by massless particles such as photons. Anything with any mass however small cannot keep up with a photon. That's because accelerating a particle which has mass must have a force applied to accelerate, the classic formula "f=ma".

The universe isn't that simple though. Particles gain discernable mass as they approach light speed. Mass and energy are equivalent and "heavier" things require more effort to push faster and that makes them more massive and increasingly so as one approaches c.

To cut to the chase, you would need literally infinite energy to create infinite mass and that's impossible. I don't mean a lot. I'm talking literally infinite. So to go faster than light means more than infinite. Ain't happening.

 

[norseamd]

It's the former.

There is an inherent speed limit woven into spacetime and that is only reached by massless particles such as photons. Anything with any mass however small cannot keep up with a photon. That's because accelerating a particle which has mass must have a force applied to accelerate, the classic formula "f=ma".

The universe isn't that simple though. Particles gain discernable mass as they approach light speed. Mass and energy are equivalent and "heavier" things require more effort to push faster and that makes them more massive and increasingly so as one approaches c.

To cut to the chase, you would need literally infinite energy to create infinite mass and that's impossible. I don't mean a lot. I'm talking literally infinite. So to go faster than light means more than infinite. Ain't happening.

an object without volume?

 

[KeithP]

Like all these "we have a major discovery, spread the word we will announce it soon" events it will be completely worthless crap.

-KeithP

 

[Fritzo]

Gorns are real! Yay!

If they announce that, they NEED to play the Star Trek fight music while they're doing it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AphxyjrH4SE

 

[SlitheryDee]

Voyager 1 ran into something. Turns out there's a wall just outside the solar system with stars painted on it.

 

[IronWing]

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090425224550/memoryalpha/en/images/9/9b/Gorn.jpg

Serious question here: Who the hell picked the gorn's outfit, Mr. Sulu? It looks like something rejected for a Nancy Sinatra video shoot. The gloves are to die for.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

It's the former.

There is an inherent speed limit woven into spacetime and that is only reached by massless particles such as photon

What about quantum entanglement? It's proven that information can be exchanged between entangled pairs at speeds thousands of times faster than light.

 

[norseamd]

What about quantum entanglement? It's proven that information can be exchanged between entangled pairs at speeds thousands of times faster than light.

but einstein and lack of volume prove quantum entanglement wrong

 

[norseamd]

What about quantum entanglement? It's proven that information can be exchanged between entangled pairs at speeds thousands of times faster than light.

but einstein and lack of volume prove quantum entanglement wrong

 

[her209]

Photon torpedoes!

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

My vote is for some kind of life sustaining earth like planet....and a radio signal maybe.

 

[Fritzo]

My vote is for some kind of life sustaining earth like planet....and a radio signal maybe.

Nah- that would be breaking world news.

 

[Paratus]

so with the speed of light theories do they say that anything is prevented from going faster than the speed of light or that there is just no way to produce enough energy to go faster than light?

There had been some theoretical work done in the 90's by Miguel Alcurrbie that shows, via relativity, it's possible to sidestep the speed of light limit by warping space. Locally you would be traveling slower than the speed of light but to an outside observer you would be traveling faster.

The solution he came up with required enormous amounts of energy and "exotic matter" which warps space differently than normal matter. Exotic matter doesn't appear to exist but mathematically it works.

Some folks at my work have taken another look at the math and think they can get the energy requirements down to something manageable and negate the need for exotic matter.

We know the universe can expand space faster than the speed of light per inflation theory. So this team is trying some basic experiments to see if we can do the same.
White - Juday Warp Field Interferometer

While it would be an enormous breakthrough if it worked, this is basic research. It may not work at all or be inconclusive. Still it's really cool work.

 

[T9D]

That hover boards really are real and will be here in 2015 as promised.

 

[Albatross]

They detected gravity waves from my ego.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

What about quantum entanglement? It's proven that information can be exchanged between entangled pairs at speeds thousands of times faster than light.

We (or at least I) were referring to particles, "things", that have a physical presence in spacetime within the universe. We know that changing the state of one member of an entangled pair alters the other as you say, but if you look more closely you will find that passing along useful information at apparent transluminal speeds is problematic. Don't be looking for an ansible soon. In any case mass and energy isn't going faster than light as I've already explained, at least as far as spacetime is concerned.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

We (or at least I) were referring to particles, "things", that have a physical presence in spacetime within the universe. We know that changing the state of one member of an entangled pair alters the other as you say, but if you look more closely you will find that passing along useful information at apparent transluminal speeds is problematic. Don't be looking for an ansible soon. In any case mass and energy isn't going faster than light as I've already explained, at least as far as spacetime is concerned.

The fact that we can't use entanglement to pass along information YET does not mean that we will not ever be able to do it. Einstein thought information exchange at faster than light speeds was impossible, now we know it's not. Einstein concluded that nothing could exceed the speed of light, now we know he was wrong. Maybe he was wrong about the speed of light being the absolute speed limit of particles too. Light moves so quickly it took humans more than a million years to figure out that it moves at all. Do you not make room for at least the possibility that on the quantum level something moves so much faster than light that we simply are not smart enough or advanced enough to notice it? Our understanding of quantum physics is about equal to a cavemans understanding of normal physics. We could be WAY off. If information can move between entangled pairs at 10,000 times the speed of light we might someday figure out particles can do the same.

 

[manimal]

The secret is ROSSI WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG!

GAHHH /killsself

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

The fact that we can't use entanglement to pass along information YET does not mean that we will not ever be able to do it. Einstein thought information exchange at faster than light speeds was impossible, now we know it's not. Einstein concluded that nothing could exceed the speed of light, now we know he was wrong. Maybe he was wrong about the speed of light being the absolute speed limit of particles too. Light moves so quickly it took humans more than a million years to figure out that it moves at all. Do you not make room for at least the possibility that on the quantum level something moves so much faster than light that we simply are not smart enough or advanced enough to notice it? Our understanding of quantum physics is about equal to a cavemans understanding of normal physics. We could be WAY off. If information can move between entangled pairs at 10,000 times the speed of light we might someday figure out particles can do the same.

Information isn't being transmitted. Perhaps this discussion will clarify things. look here.

 

[techs]

Transwarp Drive

 

[Fritzo]

Transwarp Drive

Well...it was working before a fat guy with a Scottish accect was seen sneaking around.

 

[sdifox]

Maybe they finally figured out the secret of fusion?