4 ms·
The way that a slinky moves also demonstrates the question that some ask about the giant stick and the speed of light. To explain, if you had a button a light
by afreak 13y ago
The way that a slinky moves also demonstrates the question that some ask about the giant stick and the speed of light.
To explain, if you had a button a light year away and had the option to press it via a remote hand, the fastest we could tell the remote hand to press it would be one light year.
However, there has been the question of whether a long stick that is one light year in distance in lieu of sending a signal to the remote hand could be faster. The way the slinky moves would demonstrate that the giant stick would not move faster than the speed of light as the motion exerted on one end would actually travel much slower.
The slinky is quite useful for demonstrating movement of objects. :)
- jessaustin 13y ago...the fastest we could tell the remote hand to press it would be one light year. Time is measured in years, not light years! b^)
- ahelwer 13y agoIt would travel at the speed of sound in the stick material, since you are transmitting a compression.
- pbhjpbhj 13y agoEven having studied relativity and such at Uni I haven't come across this particular illustration before. It should be called the Fing-long-er Gedanken. Thanks for sharing.
- jlgreco 13y agoI encountered it in university, though the example was given in a freshman level course by some kid who thought he was cleverly circumventing information's speed limit. The professor seemed quite pleased with it.