Universal Epoch Time

[Cheraphy]

light cannot change speed no matter how much you alter the space it travels through

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/2001/01.24/01-stoplight.html

[Disch]

That article wrote:

They did it by passing a beam of light through a small cloud of atoms cooled to temperatures a billion times colder than those in the spaces between stars.

Wtf does that mean? You can't be a billion times colder than a temperature... that's retarded.

What is "5x colder" than 70 degrees?


Normally I wouldn't mind. But it's a fucking science article. From Harvard. Get your shit together, guys.



I stopped reading after that.

[LB]

@Disch: 5 times cooler than 70 kelvin is 14 kelvin. Nowhere in the quote was the word "degrees" used.

[Disch]

@LB: The unit for the Kelvin scale is a 'kelvin', not a 'degree'. You would just say "14 Kelvin".

Also, even if you're right... that's awkwardly worded at best. You typically don't say "5x as <negative>"... you would say "1/5th as <positive>" or "20% of <positive>".

IE, if I am wearing 3 articles of clothing and I remove two of them... I wouldn't say I'm "3 times as naked". That statement doesn't make any sense.


Lastly, by that definition, a billion times colder than anything outside of a star is going to be extremely close to absolute 0. If they are in fact getting that close to absolute 0 it would be much more impressive to state the actual temperature they achieved.

[Cubbi]

Indeed, it's the speed of light in vacuum that's constant Light in everything else moves slower (and faster-than-light travel in, for example, water, is well studied and nothing unusual)

[48T7M4Gy]

With all this new found knowledge all we need is somebody here to write an app for the new iWatch

[Cheraphy]

Also android wear

[chrisname]

Cubbi wrote:

faster-than-light travel in, for example, water, is well studied and nothing unusual

???

[Ispil]

Cubbi is right. Light does, after all, travel much slower in water than it does in a vacuum- it doesn't mean that something in water can't travel faster than the light around it in water.

[chrisname]

Ok, I misunderstood him. I thought he was saying light travels faster than c in water which is obviously wrong.