Won't work. As the speed of an object approaches the speed of light, it's
mass approaches infinity asymptotically. Basically, you can't make the
merry-go-round go fast enough if the stick is already stuck out there. Now,
you say, what if we spin the merry-go-round first? The law of conservation
of angular momentum comes into play, so the farther out you push the stick,
the more it slows the merry-go-round down.
Why? Ever see a spinning ice skater pull in their arms and leg and start
going faster and faster? It's a result of the law of conservation of
angular momentum. Spinning with arms out, the arms are going fast, like
your hypotheical stick (so many opportunities for jokes here....). As the
arms come in, their inertia tries to make them stay at the same speed. In
order to do that, the body's rotational velocity would have to increase.
So, the arms and body find a happy medium -- much slower than the arms were
going (because they have proportionally small mass) but somewhat faster than
the body was going.
So, in short, you are totally completely wrong. :-)
--Ben Doom
Programmer & General Lackey
Moonbow Software
: -----Original Message-----
: From: Phoeun Pha [mailto:phoeunp@;entelligence.com]
: Sent: Monday, October 28, 2002 12:15 PM
: To: CF-Community
: Subject: Hey Ben RE: MAthematical Equation
:
:
: ok, this has also been bothering me. 2 things actually...Here's
: the first.
:
: How to travel faster than light....
:
: Think of a Carousel spinning. The farther you are from the
: center carousel
: (while still on it), the faster you go... I am not sure of the
: relationship
: between distance from center/speed, but here what I was thinking. What if
: you have a really long stick, and have it spinning around and around. The
: longer that stick, the faster the speed of the stick. Let's say we have
: this stick out in space. I was wondering if we can come up with a
: speed/length ratio to determine how fast we have to spin the stick and how
: long the stick has to be in order to have the ends move as fast
: as light, or
: even faster! Note: If you have a stick long enough, you can spin it very
: slowly, and the ends can move very fast! So this means you wouldn't need
: much power to spin the stick! And because it's done in space you
: won't have
: to worry much about other forces acting on it (friction). What
: do you guys
: think? I mean is this theoretically sound? Can it be done?
:
: Also, I wonder what we would be able to see if we were standing 3
: feet away
: from the center of the stick, and we were looking towards one end
: of it with
: a telescope!! Any ideas? WOuld be wierd!
:
:
:
: I will post my second thought later after lunch.
:
:
:
:
: -----Original Message-----
: From: Ben Doom [mailto:bdoom@;moonbow.com]
: Sent: Monday, October 28, 2002 11:04 AM
: To: CF-Community
: Subject: RE: MAthematical Equation
:
:
:
: Um... Technically you can see four.
:
: You can only see three from each eye, but if you take a cube whose side is
: shorter than the distance between your eyes, hold it up close, and cross
: your eyes /real/ good, you can see a different third side with each eye.
:
: So there. Ptttth.
:
: But back to the real question.
:
: It has to do with the symmetry of the cube. Essentially, each side is
: hidden from view by it's reflected side or a combination thereof.
: Note that
: if it is blocked by two or more sides, its relected side is partially
: blocking the reflective sides of the two sides blocking it. Whoo.
:
: If you think of it as a faceted sphere, it might help. And,
: IIRC, you can't
: see more than four sides of an octahedron (8-sider), more than six of a
: dodecahedron (12-sider), or more than ten of an icosahedron (20-sider).
:
: As for proof, well, I'm not that much of a geometrist. Lots of
: help I was,
: eh?
:
:
: --Ben Doom
: Programmer & General Lackey
: Moonbow Software
:
: : -----Original Message-----
: : From: Phoeun Pha [mailto:phoeunp@;entelligence.com]
: : Sent: Monday, October 28, 2002 11:47 AM
: : To: CF-Community
: : Subject: MAthematical Equation
: :
: :
: : Hey guys, is there some mathematical proof to explain why we can
: : only see at
: : most 3 faces of a cube at one time? I mean, the only answer I have for
: : myself is...."It just is!"
: :
: : But I have been bothered with it lately and I want some concrete answer!
: :
: :
: :
:
:
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