Are Neutrinos Faster Than Photons?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around the speed of neutrinos in comparison to photons, exploring claims about whether neutrinos can travel faster than light. Participants reference past experiments and reports, as well as the implications of neutrino mass on their speed, while addressing the challenges in measuring neutrino velocities.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Technical explanation

Main Points Raised

  • One participant questions the speed of neutrinos, noting conflicting information from Wikipedia and personal readings.
  • Another participant asserts that neutrinos are not faster than light, referencing a past anomalous result from CERN that was later corrected due to a technical error.
  • A different participant supports the claim that neutrinos do not exceed the speed of light, explaining that their mass implies they must travel slower, though measuring their speed is complicated due to their low mass and weak interactions with matter.
  • One participant expresses a hypothesis regarding the speed of light but indicates difficulty in articulating it due to language barriers.
  • Several participants agree that, as far as current understanding goes, nothing travels faster than light, while also reminding others about forum rules against personal theories.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree that nothing is known to travel faster than light, but there are differing views on the implications of past experimental results and the nature of neutrinos.

Contextual Notes

The discussion reflects uncertainty regarding the measurement of neutrino speeds and the historical context of claims made by CERN. Limitations in language and expression are also noted by some participants.

hoseinkh
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hello everyone
I have a question , that is like a story " I talking with my friend about Neutrino and ...
" I had written about it at wikipedia and they said that the speed of Neutrino not more than Photons , but I had read that they are faster than Photons speed.
which one is true?!
I am sorry about maybe i have a Grammatical mistake,because English is not my mother tongue.
thanks so much
 
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Neutrinos are not faster than light. :)

I think what you read about them being "faster than photons" was from a press report given out by CERN a couple of years back when they had an anomalous result in one of their detectors suggesting neutrinos traveled faster than light. As it turned out, it was just a fiber optic cable that was not plugged in properly if I remember correctly. In other words, it was just a mistake on CERN's part. There is no evidence that neutrinos travel faster than light.
 
Neutrinos do not travel faster than photons. Recent experiments suggest that neutrinos have mass, so they must travel slower than light. But their mass is so very small and they interact so little with matter that it's very difficult to measure their speed. This difficulty has led to a few errors in measuring their speed that gave a result that was greater than the speed of light, but these errors were corrected and the measured speed was brought back down to the expected values.
 
OK got it ;) thank you ;) Drakkith and Matterwave
then there is nothing faster than light, but i have Hypothesis about this rule but i can not writte it , my English is not good excuse me.
 
hoseinkh said:
OK got it ;) thank you ;) Drakkith and Matterwave
then there is nothing faster than light, but i have Hypothesis about this rule but i can not writte it , my English is not good excuse me.

Indeed there is nothing as far as we know that goes faster than light.

Be sure to check out the PF rules though, as personal theories are not allowed in this forum. Just a friendly reminder. ;)
 
Matterwave said:
Indeed there is nothing as far as we know that goes faster than light.

Be sure to check out the PF rules though, as personal theories are not allowed in this forum. Just a friendly reminder. ;)

OK thanks
 

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