klaes@mtwain.dec.com (CUP/ML, MLO5-2/G1 8A, 223-3283) (01/20/89)
The following article contains more details on Obolensky's
claim of FTL signals, and a rebuttal by Jim Lesurf; from the January
14, 1989 issue of NEW SCIENTIST:
Alexis Obolensky, the American (United States) instrumentation
engineer who claims to have discovered faster than light (FTL)
signals, set up an experimental rig which consists of a wire arranged
in a triangular circuit with a 250 volt battery at its apex and a pair
of square metal plates designed to act as capacitors at the corners of
the base of the triangle. Two mercury vapor relays break the circuit
sixty times per second at the base of the triangle near each of the
plates. A pair of sensing coils, linked by coaxial cables to a twin
channel oscilloscope located up to 46 meters away, encircles the base
wire near the relays.
One of the relays discharges the parallel plate capacitor, while
the other relay remains closed. Obolensky claims the signals can take
two routes to the oscilloscope: Through the nearest coax cable and on
the base wire and the longer coax cable. He claims the first signals
arrived almost simultaneously and almost instantaneously along both
routes - he claims 100 times faster than the speed of light, which is
186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) per second. He claims a second
signal then arrives, traveling at twice the speed of light.
Jim Lesurf, Saint Andrews University, sees two major flaws in the
experiment: The sensor coils do not detect current because they are
perpendicular to the magnetic field produced - instead they detect
electric field; the current does not necessarily stop as soon as the
relay opens - it involves changing magnetic fields: The parallel
plates would act as mirrors producing electromagnetic images of the
circuit wires. These flaws do not represent FTL transmissions but
changes in potential at various points in the circuit as the plates
are charged and discharged. He also suggests a path between the
coaxial cables whose speed would vary with atmospheric conditions
(experiment outside) that explains the varying measurements produced.
Larry Klaes