FOR KIDS: Too fast to be true

Human error, not new physics, may explain surprising speeds of tiny neutrinos

Web edition : 1:30 pm

Last September, scientists working on an Italian experiment called OPERA reported a measurement that seemed too amazing to be true. Their finding involved neutrinos, supersmall and ultrafast particles that can travel through almost anything without stopping. The scientists measured the speeds of neutrinos that zipped from one underground laboratory to another and reported that the zippy little particles traveled faster than light. In November, they repeated the experiment and got the same results.?

The OPERA results meant either our understanding of science is based on an error or something went wrong with the experiment. The explanation, as it turns out, has more to do with broken machinery than breaking the laws of physics.

Visit the new?Science News for Kids?website?and read the full story:?Too fast to be true

Found in: Science News For Kids

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/339214/title/FOR_KIDS_Too_fast_to_be_true

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