What's the fastest thing in Africa?

๐ŸŽ™๏ธ ConsiderablyMediocre ยท 808 points ยท Posted at 15:40:53 on February 17, 2016 ยท (Permalink)


Light

Chief91 ยท 86 points ยท Posted at 18:09:47 on February 17, 2016 ยท (Permalink)

You got me good, almost as good as light in Africa.

badasscoming ยท 14 points ยท Posted at 00:57:30 on February 18, 2016 ยท (Permalink)

You belong in r/antijokes

redditmortis ยท 17 points ยท Posted at 03:36:03 on February 18, 2016 ยท (Permalink)

Well, he's here.

SwissMidget ยท 5 points ยท Posted at 03:46:32 on February 18, 2016 ยท (Permalink)

What about the rains down in Africa...

akcrono ยท 3 points ยท Posted at 05:03:22 on February 18, 2016 ยท (Permalink)

Bless them

5225225 ยท 47 points ยท Posted at 20:49:23 on February 17, 2016 ยท (Permalink)

Neutrinos are actually quicker than the speed of light in Africa.

kevinthediltz ยท 19 points ยท Posted at 22:07:09 on February 17, 2016 ยท (Permalink)

Nice physics joke, bro. I got it.

5225225 ยท 5 points ยท Posted at 22:18:02 on February 17, 2016 ยท (Permalink)

Third time's the charm.

I've told this joke twice before and had to explain it both times.

kevinthediltz ยท 8 points ยท Posted at 05:00:07 on February 18, 2016 ยท (Permalink)

I actually thought you were referencing that time CERN miscalibrated a timer and they clocked a neutrino going like 200% c. Granted, that wasn't in Africa.

ZhadowHunter ยท 3 points ยท Posted at 23:16:00 on February 17, 2016 ยท (Permalink)

I don't get it... Am I just dumb?

5225225 ยท 37 points ยท Posted at 23:29:04 on February 17, 2016 ยท (Permalink)

Neutrinos interact with fuck-all, basically. They're often moving very damn quick. They have mass, so they can't move at the speed of light in a vacuum, but they move very close to it.

It turns out the speed of light in air is actually pretty slow, relative to the neutrinos. (90km/s slower than c for photons). The speed of neutrinos is found to basically be a tiny amount slower than c.

Therefore, in air they move faster than light does in air.

ZhadowHunter ยท 3 points ยท Posted at 07:17:56 on February 18, 2016 ยท (Permalink)

Oh wow. That's really cool. Thanks for explaining that to me.

Mopstorte ยท 3 points ยท Posted at 18:43:09 on March 23, 2016 ยท (Permalink)

Ok, I have a question about this. I don't know too much about the subject, but isn't the speed of photons always c, but in everything but a vacuum it bounces around when hitting other atoms/molecules, so it takes longer to get from A to B because the distance it's traveling is higher, but the speed stays the same?

Or do photons actually slow down somehow when not in a vacuum?

5225225 ยท 1 points ยท Posted at 19:42:06 on March 23, 2016 ยท (Permalink)

Ask on /r/askscience, they might have a better explanation.

awoelt ยท 5 points ยท Posted at 23:09:01 on February 17, 2016 ยท (Permalink)

I will admit. I am a bit disappointed.

Steel_Stream ยท -7 points ยท Posted at 20:54:18 on February 17, 2016 ยท (Permalink)

Actually, it's poverty

lordofcatan10 ยท 18 points ยท Posted at 21:48:04 on February 17, 2016 ยท (Permalink)

Is it really a fast if it's just starvation?

Steel_Stream ยท 3 points ยท Posted at 21:49:53 on February 17, 2016 ยท (Permalink)

Asking the important questions. Now over to Ethiopia.

[deleted] ยท -16 points ยท Posted at 21:15:54 on February 17, 2016 ยท (Permalink)

[deleted]

Steel_Stream ยท 14 points ยท Posted at 21:50:32 on February 17, 2016 ยท (Permalink)

I guess you could say that this joke bounces around the internet too fast.

asarcasticpanda ยท 10 points ยท Posted at 23:15:03 on February 17, 2016 ยท (Permalink)

Like light

BadWolf89 ยท 5 points ยท Posted at 01:22:07 on February 18, 2016 ยท (Permalink)

Which was the subject of this antijoke.

asarcasticpanda ยท 5 points ยท Posted at 01:26:15 on February 18, 2016 ยท (Permalink)

Ok.