THEORY OF PARTICLES TRAVELING FASTER THAN LIGHT. I.

Among the theoretical developments of the present century, the theory of relativity occupies a unique position. While it had its birth in the attempts to understand and reconcile the various phenomena involving the propogation and interaction of light, the theory itself is nothing short of a revolution in our ideas about space and time. This revolution has been so completely successful that nowadays we hardly think seriously of a physical theory which is not in accordance with the principles of the theory of special relativity. Some of the far-reaching conclusions of the theory of relativity are already part of our general knowledge, including the equivalence of mass and energy and the familiar equation