Friction in the vacuum?
(Phys.org)—When three physicists first discovered through their calculations that a decaying atom moving through the vacuum experiences a friction-like force, they were highly suspicious. The results seemed to go against ...
News tagged with special relativity
The universe, where space-time becomes discrete
In quantum gravity, classical physics and quantum mechanics are at odds: scientists are still uncertain how to reconcile the quantum "granularity" of space-time at the Planck scale with the theory of special relativity. In ...
Quantum Physics
Apr 22, 2016
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Two different crystals can be described by the same mathematical rules
(Phys.org)—Scientists have found that an intricately beautiful yet poorly understood type of crystal found in soap bubbles follows the same mathematical rules as a much better understood type of crystal called martensite. ...
Could 80-year-old ether experiments have detected a cosmological temperature gradient?
(Phys.org)—In a new study, scientists have proposed that tiny residual effects measured by ether-drift experiments in the 1920s and '30s may be the first evidence of a temperature gradient that was theorized in the 1970s, ...
How Einstein's general theory of relativity killed off common-sense physics
Gravity ties our bodies to planet Earth but it does not define the limits of the soaring human mind. In November 1915 – exactly one century ago – this was proven to be true when Albert Einstein, in a series of lectures ...
General Physics
Nov 25, 2015
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Without Einstein it would have taken decades longer to understand gravity
It was 1905, and Albert Einstein had just turned theoretical physics on its head by publishing a paper on what later became known as special relativity. This showed that space and time could not be considered in absolute ...
General Physics
Nov 23, 2015
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Most precise test of Lorentz symmetry for the photon finds that the speed of light is indeed constant
(Phys.org)—The laws of physics are the same no matter which direction you're facing or how fast you're moving—it's such an intuitive concept that most people probably don't know that it has a name: Lorentz symmetry. Over ...
Stabilizing the transmission of time signals for relativity research
They say time waits for no man but David Gozzard might have found a way to at least tame it.
General Physics
Jul 28, 2015
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A solar eclipse sheds light on physics
On 29 May 1919, a shadow dance took place over the Caribbean which was to make history: While the new moon covered the blazingly bright disk of the Sun, astronomers around Arthur Stanley Eddington measured the shift of stars ...
Astronomy
May 26, 2015
3
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How can space travel faster than the speed of light?
Cosmologists are intellectual time travelers. Looking back over billions of years, these scientists are able to trace the evolution of our Universe in astonishing detail. 13.8 billion years ago, the Big Bang occurred. Fractions ...
Astronomy
Feb 23, 2015
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