Faster Than Light

Dr. Robert Nemiroff
Michigan Tech. University

Darwin 103
4:00 PM

Dr. Robert Nemiroff, Michigan Tech. U. Is there anything that can move faster than light? The surprising answer is yes, and a common example is a shadow. However, no physical object has ever been seen moving faster than light, no communication has ever been found to move faster than light, and Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity says that nothing with mass can be accelerated to faster than light. Nevertheless the visual world around you is replete with shadows, reflections, illumination fronts, and interference patterns that all move faster than light -- but you can't see them because they are too fast for your eye. This lecture will take you into surprising world of the superluminal, where fast things can disappear, single things can appear twice, and time can appear to go backward.