ok let me bite and geek out on you. In order to answer the question about the pencil lying on the flat surface, you need to take into account the force the surface is exerting on the pencil, and the friction coefficient of the materials of the pencil and the surface. As well as gravity of course, manifested as the mass of the pencil. They make tables for the friction coefficient.
The pencil in space -- well. Are we assuming a true vacuum? Because it probably isn't, and there is some friction to take into account. Mass goes away though. As to the possibility of things that long and thin remaining rigid -- there is a science finction book about this. Possibly The Integral Trees, by Larry Niven. Dana > Hey guys I've been thinking about this for a long time and wonder if > it has to do with the above topic. it KINDA sorta relates to the > question about gravity; whether it's instantaneous, travels at speed > of light, or faster, or what not. This is gonna be a bit long, but > PLEASE READ ON it's been nagging me since high school HAHA. > > First, let's start off with this question. I have a pen lying on a > flat surface. Regular pen. When I push the pen from one end, it > moves. What I want to know is, the moment one end moves, when does > the other end move as well? you know what i'm trying to say? When I > push, does that force push the atoms from that end, causing a chain > reaction and having it push the other atoms and so forth till the > other end moves, and the whole pen moves. is it instantaneous? or > does the end i push moves, and then .000000000000000000000000001 > seconds later the whole end moves? ok, that might not make sense but > here's what i am getting at. > > Suppose we can theoretically have a pencil out in space that is 600, > 000,000 meters long. basically it will take light 2 seconds to start > from one end and go to the other. My question is, if you push that > one end, when does the other end move? instantaneously? 2 seconds > later (speed of light)? or slower? if its instantaneous, thats > fricken awesome, cos we can theoretically have information travel > faster than light. > > if it takes 2 seconds (speed of light), then would the pencil be short > for that 2 seconds? like, if I push the pencil 1 meter, and the other > end hasn't moved yet, wouldn't it be 599,999,999 meters? Wouldn't > that be weird! > > I also have some other stuff will think about it later i hope someone > can help me! > > Maybe someone has thought about this and there's some explanation or > something can someone give me some reference please. Thanks so much! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Create robust enterprise, web RIAs. Upgrade & integrate Adobe Coldfusion MX7 with Flex 2 http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=RVJP Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:236038 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
