5 ms·
> the instrument deformed slowly under its own weight for the last decade and now we're 4 angstroms off This was hilarious and plausible at the same time. Nice
by brtkdotse 5y ago
> the instrument deformed slowly under its own weight for the last decade and now we're 4 angstroms off
This was hilarious and plausible at the same time. Nice work!
- smueller1234 5y agoTotally plausible indeed! One of the recent (past decade or so) major mistaken discoveries in particle physics was a cabling issue. And from a different field, but closer to the quip: semiconductor lithography lenses' own weight causes stresses that cause birefringence in the optics that has to be explicitly corrected for. And that was true 20 years ago already. (Recovering particle physicist here and thinking about this even much later gives me mild trauma. ;) )
- heavyset_go 5y ago> One of the recent (past decade or so) major mistaken discoveries in particle physics was a cabling issue. Have more info on this or link about it?
- perihelions 5y agoI'm guessing the parent is referring to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than-light_neutrino_anomaly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than-light_neutrino_ano...
- adgjlsfhk1 5y ago"EM Drive" also probably counts.
- ben_w 5y agoFrom what I’ve been hearing, EM drive is more of “didn’t do the maths” followed by shoestring-budget “might as well try it, we have some spare lab space” work getting squished in between the serious projects.
- smueller1234 5y agoYes, thank you, that's the one I was thinking about. Apologies for not naming/linking it in the first place.
- heavyset_go 4y agoThanks
- extrapickles 5y agoThe Pioneer spacecraft speed anomaly turned out to be forgetting to account for the small amount of thrust from photons generated by the heat of the spacecraft (~1kph per decade).
- Ferrotin 5y agoI thought they were, but with an oversimplified model.
- PeterisP 5y agoIt's like the six-sigma result of CERN OPERA experiment showing neutrinos travaling slightly faster than speed of light - which was ultimately caused by a fiber cable between clocks not being fully tightened and thus causing a tiny delay and messing up the measurements. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than-light_neutrino_anomaly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than-light_neutrino_ano...
- pfdietz 4y agoExperiments can detect all sorts of things, including new unanticipated subtle experimental artifacts.