1

(Exclude all movements of myself) Imagine I had a straight stick that reached far out in the universe.

If I rotated that stick, what would happen to the speed of the stick and its shape?

(First edit) These questions are difficult to ask because there will always be conditions that people are asking for. I will try to explain what I am interested about.

Question We have this unimaginably long stick that is made of a material that cannot be bent and weighs nothing. I am out in the universe holding this stick, and if you would zoom out on the universe you could see this straight stick. Now, if I started to rotate this stick, what would happen to the sticks speed and shape (seen from the persons view that is zoomed out of the universe)?.

I am asking since the speed should increase the further away it is from me. What would happen at the area and beyond that is starting to approach the speed of light. If the stick would appear to bend (as seen from the guy zoomed out) what would happen if I stopped rotating the stick? Would it be forever bent as seen from the guy zoomed out?

Donkey King
  • 11
  • How long is long? And how strong are you? Unless your stick is magically rigid, it's going to wobble, like a piece of wire. (And if it is magically rigid, we can't use the laws of physics to predict its behaviour). – PM 2Ring Apr 11 '20 at 14:56

2 Answers2

1

Something Vsauce said a while ago I think was that the speed of "information" in the stick i.e. how fast the rotational motion travels down the stick depends on the speed of sound in the stick material, since the molecules can only exert forces on one another so quickly. It would indeed bend and certainly no parts of it would exceed the speed of light.

Poo2uhaha
  • 535
0

The stick would accelerate and bend. It may even break depending on the acceleration, mass, and material strength.

Dale
  • 99,825