# Light speeding? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 4, 2000, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-speeding/21370 "2000-06-04T17:00:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2000, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-speeding/21370/1 "2000-06-04T17:00:30Z")
From _The Sunday Times_: [Eureka! Scientists break speed of light](http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2000/06/04/stifgnusa01007.html) This certainly appears interesting. > [@](#): > > SCIENTISTS claim they have broken the ultimate speed barrier: the speed of light. > In research carried out in the United States, particle physicists have shown that light pulses can be accelerated to up to 300 times their normal velocity of 186,000 miles per second. > > The implications, like the speed, are mind-boggling. On one interpretation it means that light will arrive at its destination almost before it has started its journey. In effect, it is leaping forward in time. > . > . > . > The work was carried out by Dr Lijun Wang, of the NEC research institute in Princeton, who transmitted a pulse of light towards a chamber filled with specially treated caesium gas. > > Before the pulse had fully entered the chamber it had gone right through it and travelled a further 60ft across the laboratory. In effect it existed in two places at once, a phenomenon that Wang explains by saying it travelled 300 times faster than light. > . > . > . > In Italy, another group of physicists has also succeeded in breaking the light speed barrier. In a newly published paper, physicists at the Italian National Research Council described how they propagated microwaves at 25% above normal light speed. The group speculates that it could be possible to transmit information faster than light. What are the implications as applied to the speed of propagation of gravitational attraction? ---
**Author:** ![Wood\_Thrush](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b38774/32.png) [@Wood\_Thrush](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wood_Thrush)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2000, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-speeding/21370/2 "2000-06-04T17:52:18Z")
[Evanescent waves and faster-than-c](http://63.97.40.4/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=25948) ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2000, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-speeding/21370/3 "2000-06-04T19:50:41Z")
Well, for one thing, if they’ve figured out a way to “propagate microwaves at 25% above normal light speed,” I’d guess that prices ought to be coming down. Sears wants $299.99 for a Kenmore microhood, and I’m like, “Are you kidding?” And it’s only 950 watts, too. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2000, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-speeding/21370/4 "2000-06-04T21:36:39Z")
_sigh_… It’s folks like the Sunday Times that give Cecil job security. I don’t feel like going into my rant here about the popular press and science reporting, but I believe that you’ll find it over in that thread that Wood Thrush linked. ---
**Author:** ![madd1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@madd1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madd1)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-speeding/21370/5 "2000-06-05T11:33:30Z")
3 questions about the speed of stink: 1. Are the reports BS? ( I would think the news world would have turned over on their heads all weekend if it were.) 2. Would all of the relativity books be trash? 3. Would it be beyoned the Physics academic world to “poo-poo” the whole thing, no matter what? They all seem rather firm on the speed of stink. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-speeding/21370/6 "2000-06-05T12:32:13Z")
If microwaves can break the speed of light, does that mean that it’ll cook food before you put it in the oven? :D:D ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-speeding/21370/7 "2000-06-05T17:42:25Z")
OK, I didn’t read this article at first, because I thought it was referring to another experiment which has since been called into serious question. This one looks legitimate, but uninteresting. [oversimplification]Basically, all that they showed was that the front of a pulse reaches the other end of the material before the middle does.[/oversimplification] Of course, if they just said that, it’d be boring and they wouldn’t sell newspapers, so they slap on a “Faster than Light” headline.