Faster Than Light Hubbub
I see that "Faster Than Light" research is in the news again with journalists stating that if the measurements are true in the latest research at CERN that physics will be upended by a violation of Einstein’s rules. I remember getting all excited when a researcher, I think in NJ was able to get information to travel faster than the speed of light about ten-ish years ago. I got all excited about this "violation" because the implication was, if the information was going faster than the speed of light then according to relativity it was going backwards through time; Thus result precedes cause! The researcher did so by manipulating cobalt gas so I quickly imagined that using large coils of cobalt gas, it would be possible to send information a few minutes into the past allowing for warnings of surprise disasters. After the initial hubbub, I think the researchers corrected the journalists by reminding them that Einstein’s relativity laws state that nothing can travel faster than light "IN A VACUUM". Because this experiment did not take place in a vacuum, but instead in cobalt gas, Einstein’s laws were not broken.
The current CERN research also does not take place in a vacuum. The neutrinos are traveling through 732 km of rock. That doesn't read to me as a violation of the FTL IN A VACUUM law. 6x10e-8 seconds sounds like a margin of error that could be accounted for by our relatively (pun intended) weak understanding of time-space variations imposed by earths irregular and always fluctuating gravity map along these neutrons paths.
I didn't take physics in high school so am I totally off here?
The current CERN research also does not take place in a vacuum. The neutrinos are traveling through 732 km of rock. That doesn't read to me as a violation of the FTL IN A VACUUM law. 6x10e-8 seconds sounds like a margin of error that could be accounted for by our relatively (pun intended) weak understanding of time-space variations imposed by earths irregular and always fluctuating gravity map along these neutrons paths.
I didn't take physics in high school so am I totally off here?