Has Einstein’s Relativity Theory Been Proved Wrong?

Einstein’s theory proved wrong?

In experiments conducted in INFN’s Gran Sasso Lab in Italy and in CERN in Switzerland, subatomic particles were clocked at 300006 km per second, which means 6 km faster than speed of light. Light travels at a speed of 300000 km per second in vacuum. World over, there are scientific discussions that Einstein’s theory of relativity has been proved wrong. Does it mean that science books have to be rewritten in future? Does it mean physics theories will undergo a change? These questions are disturbing the minds of physicists and students world over. So far, the world has believed that nothing can exceed speed of light, as propounded by Albert Einstein.

300px-Einstein1921 by F Schmutzer 4

Results contained experimental error?

In fact the researchers in these two laboratories found it difficult to proclaim their results that they asked other researchers to independently verity the facts. So strong is Einstein’s relativity theory, proclaimed in 1905, entrenched in the minds of scientists that it is difficult to brush it aside because of one single finding. May be there was an experimental error. The accelerator sent the neutrino speeding up to a distance of 454 miles from Switzerland to Italy. Considering the speed of the particle, the distance is too small to record accurate readings. Therefore a matter of six seconds could have occurred because of error in observation.

300px-Einstein Equation

Accuracy of results challenged

In fact, already doubts have been expressed about the accuracy of the results. The speed of the neutrino worked out in SI units is just a nano second more than speed of light. A nano second is 0.000000001 second or a billionth of a second. Easily, error could have accounted this discrepancy. Drew Baden, Chairman of Physics Department at the University of Maryland, said it is far more likely that there are measurement errors or some kind of fluke. He also stated that tracking neutrinos is very difficult. Baden also stated that it is ridiculous what the researchers are putting out.

Einstein never conducted experiments

It is not the first time that Einstein’s theories are challenged. In fact they were challenged even during the times of Einstein himself. When the theory of relativity predicted that a star light approaching sun’s disc should bend, the scientists world over challenged the theory. They even told his disciples that their master (Einstein) should be a fool. Their contention was that when the rectilinear property of light, which stated that light always travelled in a straight line, was well established, Einstein’s theory contradicted it. But Einstein stuck to his theory, giving some mathematical equations as the proof. Einstein was a person who never worked in any laboratory. He hated practical experiments. He sat on the banks of rivers in Germany, where he was born and brought up, with paper and pencil and scribbled various mathematical equations. These mathematical equations formed the cornerstone of his theories in physics. For Einstein, there was no difference between physics and mathematics.

You cannot see sun and star at the same time!

But the scientific community in the world refused to accept the mathematical equations of Einstein and demanded a hard experimental proof. Einstein jokingly stated that when there was star (in the night), there was no sun and when there was sun (in the day time), there was no star and hence it was difficult to provide a hard experimental proof for his theory. The matter was a bone of contention between the supporters and critics of Einstein for several years until an opportunity came to prove or disprove Einstein’s theory.

Johannesburg total solar eclipse provided the opportunity

In 1919 (or maybe in 1920 – I am not sure), a total solar eclipse was to come in Johannesburg, South Africa. The totality of this eclipse was calculated beforehand at more than 2 minutes. By cosmic standards, this was a quite a long time for the totality to last. All the scientists were eager to witness this eclipse. They thought that during totality, both the star light and sun’s disc could be seen and Einstein’s theory could be put to test. All the scientists sailed by ship (in those days, commercial air travel had not come into vogue yet) to Johannesburg. Einstein himself did not go there but he granted leave for his students to witness the event.

Einstein would have termed it as an experimental error!

On the D-day, all prayed for a clear weather, bright sunshine and absence of overcast sky. Their prayers were answered positively and the sky was clear blue with gentle breeze blowing in Johannesburg. When the time arrived, the moon started eclipsing the sun. Everybody held on to their telescope with belated breathe. Heart beats were soaring. The totality started. The sun’s disc was fully covered by the moon. Night appeared on the sky. Stars became visible. Birds and animals screamed and howled at the unusual happening. In the midst of the din, one could clearly observe that the star light approaching the sun’s disc actually bent, proving that Einstein was right! Einstein’s students could not control their joy. Their master was proved right! They distributed sweets and celebrated the event. After sightseeing, they started their return journey. When they met Einstein and congratulated him, the master was not moved. “I had no doubt about my theory. It was you who doubted it and went to Johannesburg to verify it”, joked Einstein. A student asked what would have been his reaction had the star light not bent. Einstein replied without smile “I would have termed it as an experimental error!”

Einstein’s confidence

This incident proves the confidence Einstein had in his works. Einstein’s theories could not be doubted for experimental errors because the theories were never the results of any experiments conducted by the master. They were rather the results of his deep study of several complicated mathematical equations. Therefore, it is easy to conclude that if Einstein had been alive today, he would have discarded the present experimental result as a probable error and stuck to his theory that nothing could exceed speed of light.

Einstein accepted that particles could exceed speed of light

But it is also pertinent to note that notionally, Einstein accepted that it was theoretically possible for an object to exceed the speed of light. He even gave name for such objects and called them as ‘tachyons’. Tachyons are the objects which could travel beyond the speed of light. Einstein’s relativity theory stated that only the velocity of light in vacuum was absolute and everything else including time was relative to it. He even gave an example to illustrate this concept. Suppose you travel at near speed of light (say 99% of speed of light) in a spacecraft in space for five minutes and come back to your place in five minutes at the same speed. After you return to your place, ten minutes would have passed in your life time. But for the other people in earth, millions of years would have passed. Perhaps human civilisation itself would have been extinct.

Your daughter will be older than you!

Extend this concept still further. If you travel at near speed of light for a trillion trillion part of a second and come back, negligible time would have passed in your life time. But for others, sixty years would have passed. If you started the journey when you were forty years old and your daughter aged ten years wished you success, on return you will find that you are still aged forty, but your daughter will now be seventy years old – a grandmother by all means. What a funny thing it will be.

Travelling back in time capsule

Extend this concept still further. If you travel at exactly the speed of light, you will never age, no matter how long you travel. Now extend this concept a little more and imagine that you are a tachyon. In other words, you are travelling at a speed higher then speed of light. You will age backwards. In other words, if you are sixty years old, you will become fifty, forty, etc. You will even attain negative age but still will not die. This situation is difficult to imagine.

You can see Red Indians wandering USA

I will make you to understand by a simple example. Imagine that there is a planet about four hundred light years away in our own galaxy Milky Way. Imagine that intelligent creatures, which are much more technologically advanced then us, are living in it. Imagine that they are capturing every event in our planet with an advanced camera. Suppose you become a tachyon and land in that planet and somehow befriend them. They have just finished capturing an event in the USA. Very eager to see it, you request them to show it to you. You are quite astonished to see that Red Indians are wandering all over USA with big bison and forests. There are no cities or white people. There are no landmark buildings like Pentagon or World Trade Centre. What is the reason for it? Even though you are living in the year 2011, the video captured the events on earth four hundred years back and you are seeing United States in 1611 and not in 2011.

Tachyons can predict the future!

Suppose you focus your video on India to see the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi, You are again in for a surprise. Mughal Emperor Jehangir will come in the video because it was he who was ruling India in 1611 and not Manmohan Singh. In other words, by becoming a tachyon, you are able to see time backwards. This is what Einstein meant when he said you will age backwards. It is not that your physical age will go back. You will still age normally, whether you are a tachyon or not. But the environment around you will change relatively. If you tell your friends in the new planet about the present state of affairs in USA and India, they will be quite surprised. But they cannot verify whether your statements are correct or not. They will have to wait for another four hundred years to check it up. In other words, they can seem our world as it is in 2011 only in 2411. By the way, if a tachyon from this planet visits our earth, he can ‘predict’ the future exactly as it will be after four hundred years. But his prediction is valid only for his planet and he cannot predict how our earth will be after four hundred years.

Nothing will change Einstein’s relativity theory

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