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Suppose you have a rod, which is inflexible and so does not bend under any force or pressure. This rod is attached to a machine inside of a frictionless vacuum, this machine is attached to a power source of unlimited power and will spin the rod in a circular motion.
Now the far point of this rod will end up spinning faster than a point closer to its base because those two points must remain on the same degree in our 360 degree circle defined by all the points in space the tip of the rod will occupy as it spins. However the far end will be going faster because it has a great distance to travel than a point closer to its base and cannot bend.
Therefore by spinning the rod we can force the far end to exceed the speed of light by simply accelerating the base to a sub light speed? In fact if our rod was long enough the end could be accelerated to above light speed by the tiniest amount of force on its base.
Correct? No its actually impossible, even in a frictionless vacuum environment. But why not? Anyone who answers correctly gets a bingo button.
Now the far point of this rod will end up spinning faster than a point closer to its base because those two points must remain on the same degree in our 360 degree circle defined by all the points in space the tip of the rod will occupy as it spins. However the far end will be going faster because it has a great distance to travel than a point closer to its base and cannot bend.
Therefore by spinning the rod we can force the far end to exceed the speed of light by simply accelerating the base to a sub light speed? In fact if our rod was long enough the end could be accelerated to above light speed by the tiniest amount of force on its base.
Correct? No its actually impossible, even in a frictionless vacuum environment. But why not? Anyone who answers correctly gets a bingo button.