Relativity theory’s light-speed limit validated
October 16, 2003 | Source: KurzweilAI
Addressing a controversy first raised around 1910, three researchers have validated anew the special theory of relativity’s limitations on the speed of light.
In a paper published in the Oct. 16 issue of the research journal “Nature,” they reached their findings by applying information theory to experiments with lasers. They recorded experimental conditions in which the posted light speed limit appeared to be vastly exceeded — until they subtracted the time it took them to reliably detect the results.
As the authors concluded in their Nature paper, “our observations are consistent with relativistic causality and help to resolve the controversies surrounding superluminal pulse propagation.”