More light on speed record November 20, 2011
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Albert Einstein ... may have been wrong.
THE chances have risen that Einstein was wrong about a fundamental law of the universe.
Scientists at the world's biggest physics lab say they have ruled out one possible error that could have distorted their startling measurements that appear to show particles travelling faster than light.
Many physicists reacted with scepticism in September when measurements by French and Italian researchers seemed to show subatomic neutrino particles breaking what Einstein considered the ultimate speed barrier.
Advertisement: Story continues below The European Organisation for Nuclear Research said more precise testing had confirmed the accuracy of at least one part of the experiment. ''One key test was to repeat the measurement with very short beam pulses,'' the Geneva organisation, known as CERN, said.
The test allowed scientists to check the starting time for the neutrinos was being measured correctly before they were fired 730 kilometres underground from Geneva to a lab in Italy.
The results matched those from the previous test, ''ruling out one potential source of systematic error''. Still, scientists stressed that only independent measurements by labs elsewhere would allow them to declare that the results of their experiment were a genuine finding.
Einstein said nothing was meant to go faster than the speed of light - 299,792 kilometres a second. But the researchers said their neutrinos travelled 60 nanoseconds faster.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-te ... z1eIHKeBUB
Was Einstein wrong about law of the universe?
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