The researchers observed that single photons that completely penetrated the stack passed through in about 12.84 femtoseconds. If the team added an additional single layer of low refractive index material to the stack at the end the photon took an additional 3.52 femtoseconds to pass through the stack.In my opinion, no, the word "appears" is a big clue. Plus, it required going through a refractive layer to achieve such speed. The interference between the waves altered the tests too.
However, if the team added a single high refractive index layer to the end of the stack the single photons were able to pass through the entire stack in 5.34 femtoseconds. With the photon passing through the stack in 5.34 femtoseconds the photon appears to travel at faster than light speeds.
Most importantly, the low amount of photos being able to make such speeds made it statistically irrelevant. More studies will be needed.
Original Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-01/nios-std012610.php
One of my friends brought up an interesting point:
ReplyDelete"Would be amazing if it's more than just an illusion. Even though we're far from being able to travel at the speed of light, I always hate knowing that it's the cosmic speed barrier because even at the speed of light, it'd take 1000s of years to really get to somewhere interesting out there."
My response:
We're also talking about femtoseconds...more than a millionth of a billionth of a second.
I doubt we're close to getting near the speed of light for travel. If the space shuttle, for instance, took a week to achieve light speed, the force required to push that speed would be about one giganewton...