Re: Semi-on-topic: Light that travels faster than the speed of light?

2005-08-26 Thread Jay R. Ashworth

On Mon, Aug 22, 2005 at 01:31:36PM -0600, Steve Meuse wrote:
On 8/21/05, Peter Dambier [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
  I have had a look into one of my microwave books. I have seen in
  coax cables the speed of lite drop to 90% or 80% depending on the
  insulator, the dielectric.

I believe this is referred to as velocity factor.

Not the speed of light; the speed at which the electromagnetic
wavefront travels through *that* conductor.  Yep; this is velocity
factor.  It can go down surprisingly far.

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Designer+-Internetworking--+--+   RFC 2100
Ashworth  Associates   |  Best Practices Wiki |  |'87 e24
St Petersburg FL USAhttp://bestpractices.wikicities.com+1 727 647 1274

  If you can read this... thank a system administrator.  Or two.  --me


Re: Semi-on-topic: Light that travels faster than the speed of light?

2005-08-22 Thread up


No, they were actually over the speed of light for a portion of the
signal:

They were also able to create extreme conditions in which the light
signal travelled faster than 300 million meters a second. And even though
this seems to violate all sorts of cherished physical assumptions,
Einstein needn't move over  relativity isn't called into question, because
only a portion of the signal is affected.

On Sun, 21 Aug 2005, Steve Brown wrote:


 Okay, guess I should have read the article first, given the title is Light
 that travels faster than the speed of light

 Steve

 
  Perhaps they are referring to being able to vary the speed while it is
  below the speed of light. That is, slowing it down to 1/10th the speed of
  light, and then speeding it up to 1/5th the speed of light.
 
  Steve Brown
 


James Smallacombe PlantageNet, Inc. CEO and Janitor
[EMAIL PROTECTED]   
http://3.am
=



Re: Semi-on-topic: Light that travels faster than the speed of light?

2005-08-22 Thread David Hagel

I asked about this article to someone who works on optical properties
of materials. Here's what he says (I don't pretend to understand
everything though):

 This is called superluminal propagation, and many groups have shown
it in different media; this one is in fiber.  However, this does not
violate anything apparently because it is only the leading edge of a
pulse, and information still cannot go faster than c.

 I have been trying to understand what Einstein actually said.
Apparently he said that information cannot be transmitted faster
than c.  Now light has a phase velocity which exceeds c all the time. 
The textbooks then say that it is the group velocity that cannot
exceed c.  But I found out while writing my book that even that is
possible near resonances.  Then I saw somewhere that energy velocity
cannot exceed c.  Well, I tried deriving that in a general medium and
cannot see why it is fundamentally impossible.  I asked around, and
one of my colleagues says that it is far more subtle than even
Einstein may have realized..it is the leading edge of a pulse (or
something like that) that can exceed c, but the whole pulse itself
cannot.  I really don't understand that part, and haven't found any
text describing it.  (Need to find one).


On 8/22/05, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 
 
 No, they were actually over the speed of light for a portion of the
 signal:
 
 They were also able to create extreme conditions in which the light
 signal travelled faster than 300 million meters a second. And even though
 this seems to violate all sorts of cherished physical assumptions,
 Einstein needn't move over  relativity isn't called into question, because
 only a portion of the signal is affected.
 
 On Sun, 21 Aug 2005, Steve Brown wrote:
 
 
  Okay, guess I should have read the article first, given the title is Light
  that travels faster than the speed of light
 
  Steve
 
  
   Perhaps they are referring to being able to vary the speed while it is
   below the speed of light. That is, slowing it down to 1/10th the speed of
   light, and then speeding it up to 1/5th the speed of light.
  
   Steve Brown
  
 
 
 James Smallacombe PlantageNet, Inc. CEO and Janitor
 [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
 http://3.am
 =
 



Re: Semi-on-topic: Light that travels faster than the speed of light?

2005-08-22 Thread Steve Meuse
On 8/21/05, Peter Dambier [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I have had a look into one of my microwave books. I have seen in coaxcables the speed of lite drop to 90% or 80% depending on the insulator,the dielectric.
I believe this is referred to as velocity factor.

-Steve
-- -Steve


Re: Semi-on-topic: Light that travels faster than the speed of light?

2005-08-21 Thread Peter Dambier


Hank Nussbacher wrote:

On Sat, 20 Aug 2005, Fergie (Paul Ferguson) wrote:

I doubt they are exceeding the speed of light.  Propogation delay inside
fiber is about 2/3 the speed of light so perhaps they have succeeded to
increase the speed to 3/4? :-)

-Hank


I have seen experiments with antennas and Oscilloscopes, done by Hewlett and
Packard in the 1920s I believe. They have shown the left wing of a dipole
antenna knows things in advance that you do to the right wing. The little
spike they photographed on their scope did prove it. I have seen a repetition
of that experiment at Darmstadt University studying computerscience and
having lessons in electricity. I am a hamradio operator. Those guyes are
always curious. But sorry I did not comprehend what that experiment was all
about.

The experiment has shown that really the left wing of the dipole antenna
knows things before you do them. But for you to see them you have to
get that information throug a coax cable. That information will reach you
the moment you do it. Here we go :)

On the other hand I have read again and again about those Lausanne people
sending information through tunnels at speeds faster than light and they
could proove it. Using normal fiber under normal environment conditions
gives things an interesting twist. Now everybody can touch it.

Regars,
Peter and Karin Dambier





Man, I knew I should've gotten in on the ground floor in
any effort to speed up light -- someone's going to be
rich beyond their wildest dreams. :-)

(Thanks to a post over at Slashdot) the Science Blog
reports that:

[snip]

A team of researchers from the Ecole Polytechnique F?d?rale de Lausanne (EPFL) 
has successfully demonstrated, for the first time, that it is possible to 
control the speed of light ? both slowing it down and speeding it up ? in an 
optical fiber, using off-the-shelf instrumentation in normal environmental 
conditions. Their results, to be published in the August 22 issue of Applied 
Physics Letters, could have implications that range from optical computing to 
the fiber-optic telecommunications industry.

[snip]

http://www.scienceblog.com/light.html

- ferg

--
Fergie, a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
Engineering Architecture for the Internet
[EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/







--
Peter and Karin Dambier
Public-Root
Graeffstrasse 14
D-64646 Heppenheim
+49-6252-671788 (Telekom)
+49-179-108-3978 (O2 Genion)
+49-6252-750308 (VoIP: sipgate.de)
+1-360-448-1275 (VoIP: freeworldialup.com)
mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://iason.site.voila.fr
http://www.kokoom.com/iason



Re: Semi-on-topic: Light that travels faster than the speed of light?

2005-08-21 Thread Steve Brown


Perhaps they are referring to being able to vary the speed while it is below 
the speed of light. That is, slowing it down to 1/10th the speed of light, 
and then speeding it up to 1/5th the speed of light.


Steve Brown

- Original Message - 
From: Fergie (Paul Ferguson) [EMAIL PROTECTED]

To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Saturday, August 20, 2005 10:40 AM
Subject: Semi-on-topic: Light that travels faster than the speed of light?




Man, I knew I should've gotten in on the ground floor in
any effort to speed up light -- someone's going to be
rich beyond their wildest dreams. :-)

(Thanks to a post over at Slashdot) the Science Blog
reports that:

[snip]

A team of researchers from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne 
(EPFL) has successfully demonstrated, for the first time, that it is 
possible to control the speed of light - both slowing it down and speeding 
it up - in an optical fiber, using off-the-shelf instrumentation in normal 
environmental conditions. Their results, to be published in the August 22 
issue of Applied Physics Letters, could have implications that range from 
optical computing to the fiber-optic telecommunications industry.


[snip]

http://www.scienceblog.com/light.html

- ferg

--
Fergie, a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
Engineering Architecture for the Internet
[EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/






Re: Semi-on-topic: Light that travels faster than the speed of light?

2005-08-21 Thread Steve Brown


Okay, guess I should have read the article first, given the title is Light 
that travels faster than the speed of light


Steve



Perhaps they are referring to being able to vary the speed while it is 
below the speed of light. That is, slowing it down to 1/10th the speed of 
light, and then speeding it up to 1/5th the speed of light.


Steve Brown



Re: Semi-on-topic: Light that travels faster than the speed of light?

2005-08-21 Thread Peter Dambier


Steve Brown wrote:


Perhaps they are referring to being able to vary the speed while it is 
below the speed of light. That is, slowing it down to 1/10th the speed 
of light, and then speeding it up to 1/5th the speed of light.


Steve Brown



I have had a look into one of my microwave books. I have seen in coax
cables the speed of lite drop to 90% or 80% depending on the insulator,
the dielectric. In waveguides, you might say in a coax cable without the
wire in the midle and without the insulator the speed goes up.

Seeing antennas made of coax always smaller than actual wavelenght and
antennas made of waveguides always bigger than wavelenght suggests
inside that waveguide the speed must be higher than the speed of light.

Those people experimented with tunnels first. You might say waveguides.
But now they are playing around with fibre. That allows us to verify
wether you really can send information faster than lite in it. I hope
we can make the cable long enough. Hopefully across the atlantic. :)

Regards,
Peter and Karin

- Original Message - From: Fergie (Paul Ferguson) 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Saturday, August 20, 2005 10:40 AM
Subject: Semi-on-topic: Light that travels faster than the speed of light?




Man, I knew I should've gotten in on the ground floor in
any effort to speed up light -- someone's going to be
rich beyond their wildest dreams. :-)

(Thanks to a post over at Slashdot) the Science Blog
reports that:

[snip]

A team of researchers from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de 
Lausanne (EPFL) has successfully demonstrated, for the first time, 
that it is possible to control the speed of light - both slowing it 
down and speeding it up - in an optical fiber, using off-the-shelf 
instrumentation in normal environmental conditions. Their results, to 
be published in the August 22 issue of Applied Physics Letters, could 
have implications that range from optical computing to the fiber-optic 
telecommunications industry.


[snip]

http://www.scienceblog.com/light.html

- ferg

--
Fergie, a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
Engineering Architecture for the Internet
[EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/







--
Peter and Karin Dambier
Public-Root
Graeffstrasse 14
D-64646 Heppenheim
+49-6252-671788 (Telekom)
+49-179-108-3978 (O2 Genion)
+49-6252-750308 (VoIP: sipgate.de)
+1-360-448-1275 (VoIP: freeworldialup.com)
mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://iason.site.voila.fr
http://www.kokoom.com/iason



RE: Semi-on-topic: Light that travels faster than the speed of light?

2005-08-20 Thread Buhrmaster, Gary

To make this operational, will this speed up BGP convergence?

(note that there is a difference between group velocity
and phase velocity.  The posters of 300,000 Kilometers Per
Second. It's Not Just a Good Idea, It's the Law! are still
valid). 

 -Original Message-
 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On 
 Behalf Of Fergie (Paul Ferguson)
 Sent: Saturday, August 20, 2005 10:40 AM
 To: nanog@merit.edu
 Subject: Semi-on-topic: Light that travels faster than the 
 speed of light?
 
 
 Man, I knew I should've gotten in on the ground floor in
  any effort to speed up light -- someone's going to be
 rich beyond their wildest dreams. :-)
 
 (Thanks to a post over at Slashdot) the Science Blog
 reports that:
 
 [snip]
 
 A team of researchers from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale 
 de Lausanne (EPFL) has successfully demonstrated, for the 
 first time, that it is possible to control the speed of light 
 - both slowing it down and speeding it up - in an optical 
 fiber, using off-the-shelf instrumentation in normal 
 environmental conditions. Their results, to be published in 
 the August 22 issue of Applied Physics Letters, could have 
 implications that range from optical computing to the 
 fiber-optic telecommunications industry.
 
 [snip]
 
 http://www.scienceblog.com/light.html
 
 - ferg
 
 --
 Fergie, a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
  Engineering Architecture for the Internet
  [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/
 
 


Re: Semi-on-topic: Light that travels faster than the speed of light?

2005-08-20 Thread Hank Nussbacher

On Sat, 20 Aug 2005, Fergie (Paul Ferguson) wrote:

I doubt they are exceeding the speed of light.  Propogation delay inside
fiber is about 2/3 the speed of light so perhaps they have succeeded to
increase the speed to 3/4? :-)

-Hank


 Man, I knew I should've gotten in on the ground floor in
  any effort to speed up light -- someone's going to be
 rich beyond their wildest dreams. :-)

 (Thanks to a post over at Slashdot) the Science Blog
 reports that:

 [snip]

 A team of researchers from the Ecole Polytechnique F?d?rale de Lausanne 
 (EPFL) has successfully demonstrated, for the first time, that it is possible 
 to control the speed of light ? both slowing it down and speeding it up ? in 
 an optical fiber, using off-the-shelf instrumentation in normal environmental 
 conditions. Their results, to be published in the August 22 issue of Applied 
 Physics Letters, could have implications that range from optical computing to 
 the fiber-optic telecommunications industry.

 [snip]

 http://www.scienceblog.com/light.html

 - ferg

 --
 Fergie, a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
  Engineering Architecture for the Internet
  [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/


RE: Semi-on-topic: Light that travels faster than the speed of light?

2005-08-20 Thread Fergie (Paul Ferguson)

Well, I would imagine that the faster you can ship the bits,
the faster anything can happen -- including BGP convergence and
botnet attacks (too!).  :-)

Yeah, I realize that the possibility to actually speed up
light via the optical transmission systems may be a long
ways off (or simply impossible in practicality!), but I
thought this was interesting.

- ferg


-- Buhrmaster, Gary [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

To make this operational, will this speed up BGP convergence?

(note that there is a difference between group velocity
and phase velocity.  The posters of 300,000 Kilometers Per
Second. It's Not Just a Good Idea, It's the Law! are still
valid). 

 -Original Message-
 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On 
 Behalf Of Fergie (Paul Ferguson)
 Sent: Saturday, August 20, 2005 10:40 AM
 To: nanog@merit.edu
 Subject: Semi-on-topic: Light that travels faster than the 
 speed of light?
 
 
 Man, I knew I should've gotten in on the ground floor in
  any effort to speed up light -- someone's going to be
 rich beyond their wildest dreams. :-)
 
 (Thanks to a post over at Slashdot) the Science Blog
 reports that:
 
 [snip]
 
 A team of researchers from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale 
 de Lausanne (EPFL) has successfully demonstrated, for the 
 first time, that it is possible to control the speed of light 
 - both slowing it down and speeding it up - in an optical 
 fiber, using off-the-shelf instrumentation in normal 
 environmental conditions. Their results, to be published in 
 the August 22 issue of Applied Physics Letters, could have 
 implications that range from optical computing to the 
 fiber-optic telecommunications industry.
 
 [snip]
 
 http://www.scienceblog.com/light.html
 
 - ferg
 
 --
 Fergie, a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
  Engineering Architecture for the Internet
  [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/