From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!KANorman.ES@PARC-MAXC
Newsgroups: net.physics
Title: Re: faster than light
Article-I.D.: sri-unix.5046
Posted: Sun Jan 16 13:41:57 1983
Received: Thu Jan 20 04:56:10 1983
The following statemant is true, yet it is not possible to physically construct
such a structure:
"An electrical signal in a conductor, under suitable conditions of very
low L and C values, can be made to pass through a conductor at a
velocity considerably greater than that of light."
The real difficulty is designing such a wave guide. The propogation delay in an
homogeneous medium is
Tpd= (L0 * C0))**0.5 = (0 * r * 0 * r )**0.5
Where 0 = 4**10**-7 Henry/meter
0= 8.85*10**-12 Farad/meter
and both r and r are both necessarily greater than 1.
Thus where both are 1, the minimum value of 3.33*10**-9 seconds/ meter which
is also known as 3*10**8 meters/second.
One may claim to find materials with r less than one, or those with
r less than one, but this exceedingly unlikely in this physical universe.
If you can find one or both, please send a sample to me, I'll pay the postage!
Kevin Norman
Xerox Corp.