X-Message-Number: 5522 Date: Mon, 1 Jan 1996 18:51:24 -0800 From: John K Clark <> Subject: Faster Than Light -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Relativity does not forbid anything from moving faster than light, only stuff that has mass or energy or carries information. Strangely, some things have none of these attributes, although calling them "things" may be stretching a point. It's been proven experimentally that some quantum effects propagate instantly and for unlimited distances. One system can influence another system on the other side of the universe without the slightest delay, but it carries no information because the receiving system just changes from one apparently random mode to another, it's only when you compare the two systems (and that can only be done at light speed or less) does the correspondence between the two systems become obvious. The 2 random modes have equal energy so energy is not transferred either. A less spooky example could be found in the idea of Phase Speed. I'm standing in the center of a huge hollow sphere 2 light years in diameter, I've been there for a long time and I'm holding a powerful LASER that makes a spot of light on the distant wall of the sphere one light year away. Suddenly, still holding the LASER and in the space of one second I make a complete 360 degree turn. Exactly 2 years later an observer standing at the same place would see the spot move much faster than light, it would travel the entire circumference of the sphere, 2PI or 6.28 light years in only one second. No photon moved faster than light however, and no energy or information between any two points traveled faster than light. A photon of light moves at light speed and carries energy and information, a spot of light can move at any speed but carries neither energy nor information. John K Clark -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.i iQCzAgUBMOiXFn03wfSpid95AQGpTQTsCT02skR0yrs+J/XECmMOqXbdcwxYsImv gBh9c1JqJV5Pwj5Ec50cKaVnSWEionShvKIoFaKhaJ6n1Fo70l3AaWdnjBlPQcUw aSIHBrrlvfW7Z2/EqGNF3CGxiGjKIf6ogofKC3o7ZJJ3gH2pKHCIpsg7/Xz0nFp1 ZaJV5UTxLNaGKrGf4AtEitT0a6qp3zJdLXPNfUdGMlX/5zuFpZg= =ooa1 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=5522