Exceeding the speed of light in a particular material

Loosehead | 15:12 Mon 20th Aug 2007 | Science

4 Answers

I read somewhere months ago that there is a "wave" or something that can travel faster than light in a substance eg water but not faster than c. Does this ring a bell with anyone? Can someone point me at a link? Thanks

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brachiopod

There was an article in last week's New Scientist about two physicists getting photons to exceed the speed of light.

Excerpt here

Loosehead

Question Author

yeah I read about that. I meant that there is a clear name for some waves/radiation that can exceed the local speed of light. It was demonstrated by using some sort of material that slows light down.

mjd

Are you thinking about Cerenkov Radiation see here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_radiati on

Loosehead

Question Author

Yep that's the stuff, many thanks

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