Neutrino: Faster Than Light?

Rubén D. García Avilés 

When I heard the news that there was a particle that runs faster than light and that Einstein may be wrong I was shocked. A group of physicists were doing some measurement with neutrinos and developed then using a particle accelerator at CERN. 

This has been widely reported as being the end of relativity, but this is not the case at all. Neutrinos are interesting little neutral particles according to literature that have almost a mass of zero. Knowing their nature, they can go through matter without being absorbed, going faster. The time of traveling of the neutrinos was measured with extreme precision and caution using GPS timing signals and a cesium atomic clock. 

The speed of neutrinos was measured and compared to the speed of light by simply subtracting the expected time of light to travel with the distance from the time that the neutrinos need to travel the same distance. The expected was zero for traveling at speed of light and a negative value for any below speed of light, but it presented a positive value of 60.7 nanoseconds causing some intrigue in the science world. The final paragraph of the report shows:

This is very important because the physicists established that no conclusion could be drawn without more experimentation. The shocking part is that the measurements were using some of the most amazing and precise instruments and techniques ever created. No matter what is found to be the actual cause of this 60.7 nanoseconds variation, the conclusion that you can draw is that it’s an amazing time in history were such measurements can be made, and an exciting time to be a practitioner or admirer of science. 

As discussed in class Einstein is one of the greatest minds in history. He developed the equation E=mc2 and established that nothing could travel faster than light which has a speed of 3.00 x 108 m/s. All of this was established around 1904, Would be true that 107 years later in our world history recent scientists demonstrated that the Einstein, Newton, Volta and others were wrong on their postulates? The answer is No, because these great people established their thoughts with the knowledge of the era, they developed theories that transformed human history, having in mind that it’s not for the little error that some men believe but maybe they forgot to create an equation able to classify everything. Our world is a world of changes that will be responsible of transforming the laws of some of the world’s greatest men in history. 

The future generations of young scientists who are sitting on a classroom with many ideas running through their minds and the interesting’s findings that they will had to contribute and make a world better. “Einstein wouldn’t be disappointed by these findings; he would be intrigued and proud to see the legacy of great science continuing forward’’ leading a group of scientist to appreciate his findings make a revolution in world.

Bibliography:

¿Puede un neutrino acelerado refutar a Einstein? - WSJ.com. (n.d.). Retrieved November 27, 2011,from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204831304576596823787257198.html

Neutrinos and the Speed of Light — A Primer on the CERN Study | GeekDad | Wired.com. (n.d.). Retrieved November 24, 2011, from http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/09/neutrinos-and-the-speed-of-light-a-primer-on-the-cern-study/

Physics shocker! Neutrinos clocked faster than light | Deep Tech - CNET News. (n.d.). Retrieved November 24, 2011, from http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20110594-264/physics-shocker-neutrinos-clocked-faster-than-light/

What’s a Neutrino? (n.d.). Retrieved November 24, 2011, from http://www.ps.uci.edu/~superk/neutrino.html