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If I have a transmitter that signals a relay which turns off a light off which is 300 000 km away – it has travelled at the speed of light.

If I connected a rope (which does not stretch) which is connected to this same light bulb and we ignore the weight of the rope and the friction of dragging it. Have I not completed an action which is 300 000 km in a second?

If this same light is 600 000 km away and I connect a rope twice as long and pull it to shut off this same light bulb it has completed an action twice the distance and will beat the transmitter signal. Is this not faster than the speed of light?

How does time dialation affect this rope? Is this not instantaneous like quantum entanglement?

If I have a wheel that has a 300 000 km diameter, and I spin the wheel at the speed of light. I then put rocker switches to turn the light bulb on or off to represent 0 and 1. Have I not communicated binary code at the faster than the speed of light. What if I then mesh this wheel with a wheel that has twice the circumference to turn the wheel even faster?

What if I then put flashlight on this wheel 180 degrees apart and spin this same wheel at the speed of light what is the projection of this light as it travels through space.

towtruckdriver
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  • How do you connect rope to light? Also, if you apply a force on the rope (or any physical object), the force will only travel at the speed of light. If you have a very very long + straight pole and move one end, it will cease to be straight. – Allure Mar 12 '18 at 23:56
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    I would argue that statements such as "does not stretch", "ignore the weight" are not statements that can be made when talking about such sensitive events. The rope will stretch, it does have a weight, and so the situation is more complicated than the simple example you have constructed. In your example, you may have exceeded the speed of light, but your example is not physically possible. – Benjamin Rogers-Newsome Mar 12 '18 at 23:59
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    Despite the tension/compression difference this is essentially the same as https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/2175/ – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten Mar 13 '18 at 00:08

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Very briefly (though as dmckee has pointed out, this has been basically answered before), since things cannot travel faster than the speed of light, the particles of your rope also cannot travel faster than the speed of light, so it would be impossible for any movement of the rope to travel faster than the speed of light, so you wouldn't be able to use a rope to communicate faster than the speed of light.

NeutronStar
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