Maj
Emperor
This thought has been gnawing away at me for the past couple of years and I would really like for someone to explain this to me:
Suppose you had a steel rod, about 1 cm in diameter and 1 light-minute in length. On one side of the rod is an astronaut ready to pull the rod towards him: Side A. On the other side (1 light-minute away) is nothing but, well, the other end of the rod: Side B. The relative time at both ends of the rod is 0 (seconds). Were the astronaut to pull the rod one metre towards him at 0 , would the end of the rod at Side B not move until 60 seconds had passed or would it move at the instant the astronaut pulled it? If the latter is true, would that mean "information"(for lack of a better word) travels faster than the speed of light?
I'm certain there's some obvious or obscure law(s) of physics I haven't accounted for that would expalin this all. The only explanation I've been able to conjure up is that the atoms that compose the rod would undergo a freigh-train effect where there would be an extremely tiny lapse in time between the bonds of each atom a bit like when a freight train engine starts moving, the cars further back don't begin to move until the engine has travelled a short distance. But I'm not sure if the attachment of freight cars can be compared to the bonds between atoms.
- Maj
Suppose you had a steel rod, about 1 cm in diameter and 1 light-minute in length. On one side of the rod is an astronaut ready to pull the rod towards him: Side A. On the other side (1 light-minute away) is nothing but, well, the other end of the rod: Side B. The relative time at both ends of the rod is 0 (seconds). Were the astronaut to pull the rod one metre towards him at 0 , would the end of the rod at Side B not move until 60 seconds had passed or would it move at the instant the astronaut pulled it? If the latter is true, would that mean "information"(for lack of a better word) travels faster than the speed of light?
I'm certain there's some obvious or obscure law(s) of physics I haven't accounted for that would expalin this all. The only explanation I've been able to conjure up is that the atoms that compose the rod would undergo a freigh-train effect where there would be an extremely tiny lapse in time between the bonds of each atom a bit like when a freight train engine starts moving, the cars further back don't begin to move until the engine has travelled a short distance. But I'm not sure if the attachment of freight cars can be compared to the bonds between atoms.
- Maj