Is There Anything Faster Than Light
Is There Anything Faster Than Light
In the mid-20th century, Albert Einstein broke the
establishment of science with his theory of relativeity. The physics theory
that exists today refers to Einstein's theory a lot. The main foundation of the
theory of relativity is that the maximum speed in this universe is the speed of
light, which is about 300,000 km per second. The genius of Einstein stated that
it was the king of speed. Nothing can be faster than light.
This speed of light reputation survived until 2011 when,
surprisingly, scientists working on the OPERA research project found that
neutrino particles can move faster than light! Did the genius Albert Einstein
make a mistake in compiling his theory? To be able to understand this case
well, let's clarify first what is meant by neutrinos and OPERA projects.
Neutrinos are one of the basic subatomic particles. It has
mass, even though it is very small, but it doesn't have an electric charge, aka
neutral. Naturally, neutrinos are formed from certain radioactive decay
processes. Neutrinos can also be made artificially by crashing high-speed
protons on graphite. The result of the collision will break the proton into
several simpler elements, and one of the fractional elements is neutrinos.
OPERA stands for Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tacking
Apparatus. This OPERA research project basically aims to study neutrino
characters. The OPERA project is carried out through the collaboration of two
major world science laboratories, namely CERN in Switzerland and LNGS in Italy.
In bringing out neutrinos from proton collisions, OPERA researchers made use of
the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which is one of the world's most expensive and
biggest science experiment tools.
OPERA researchers studied the movement of neutrinos they
fired from CERN Switzerland to the Italian LNGS which is 731.28 km. When they
measured the time it took for neutrinos to travel that distance, it was found
that the time was 2,43922 milliseconds. The researchers were shocked, too,
because the time measurement results were 0.006 millisecond smaller than the
time needed for light to travel the same distance. In other words, neutrinos
move faster than light! The speed of light is 299,792 km / sec, while the speed
of neutrinos is 299,800 km / sec.
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| Albert Einsten |
This discovery makes no sense because it contrasts with
Albert Einstein's theory. Light is the fastest in the universe because light
has no mass. Although very small, neutrino particles still have mass so they
cannot be faster than light.
Amazed, the OPERA researchers also spent weeks reviewing the
state of the experimental device and all their calculations. However, they did
not find any errors. Convinced of the results obtained, this discovery was
published in September 2011. Obviously, the speed of neutrinos that exceed the
speed of light immediately became a hot topic of international conversation,
including the debate about the truth. The world begins to doubt the validity of
Einstein's theory.
However, finally the OPERA researchers found that there were
two weaknesses in the design of their experiments which led to errors in
measuring the travel time of neutrino particles. The first disadvantage is that
the optical fiber is not properly installed, and the second disadvantage is
that the oscillator's time meter vibrates too fast. They announced this error
in March 2012. They confirmed that the speed of neutrinos is not faster than
the speed of light and is still consistent with the theory proposed by Albert
Einstein.
So, light is still the King of Speed in the universe, and
Einstein's genius is undeniable.