Idea for lightspeed travel...

[cracked]

hey yall. i just got up this morning and a crazy idea popped into my head. this has probably been thought of before but i havent heard of it before. heres how to travel at lightspeed (theoretically):

the basics of it have to do with circular motion. the outside of a tire spins faster than the inside. the surface of the earth spins faster than the center. if you were to take some sort of "stick" or "rod" that was X amount of miles/kilometers long(probably in the millions or billoins or more) and place a space travel "pod" at one end, then from the other end, spin it in a circle at X speed. at the center of the circle made by spinning the rod, the speed is very small. but eventually along the rod, if you were to release an object at a line tangent to that circle, it will hit lightspeed(or more theoretically). im sorry if i confused you, i kinda confused myself

obviously this is extremely impractical and impossible according to our current technology and resources, but the theory is right i think.

please if u find any flaws in the theory tell me.

drew

1) As any body approaches the speed of light (186,000 mps) its mass tends to approach infinity.

2) To spin it "at the other end" may need infinite amount of energy.

As one of the philosopher-scientists said centuries ago: "Give me a rod long and strong enough and a place to pivot it and I will lift the earth single handed". (Newton??)

Possible. But not implementable.

[Theophylact]

No, it's how to travel at lightspeed nontheoretically, because it's completely incompatible with the basic principles of relativity.

Once you accept that the speed of light as measured is independent of the velocity of the observer (and it's been tested beyond any shadow of doubt), the Special Theory of Relativity (or some mathematically equivalent one) follows directly -- although it took the genius of Einstein to recognize that, and to draw peoples' attention to the truly weird consequences.

I suggest you read The Evolution of Physics, by Einstein and Leopold Infeld. It's written in extremely plain language, and requires essentially nothing more than elementary algebra to follow.

[cyphen]

Yup. Shah hit it right on the head. as velocity increases, mass increases, and is infinite at the speed of light. Therefore the only things that can go the speed of light are massless.

I had a related theory several years ago about creating artificial gravity by spinning a disc-shaped mass at high velocity, creating a static consistent gravity field on either side. Due to rotational velocity, the mass of the disc would have to be small at the outer edge and larger at the center. Of course the very center would be 0g. Theoretically i think it would work, but the energy needs would make it impractical. I also had a thought on an electro-magnetic field of immense strength capable of warping space - which in theory could lead to artificial gravity or a "wormhole". Ironically, that thought struck me on einstein's birthday years ago. Physics is fun!

[Theophylact]

Give me a place to stand and a lever long enough and I will move the world.

Archimedes (220 BCE)

[cracked]

theo, im not arguing with you, but say you start it. first you are going 10mph. then 50. then 500. when does it stop assuming no equipment failure?

drew

Give me a place to stand and a lever long enough and I will move the world.

's what I said.

[Theophylact]

Archimedes.

Thanx. Your's is the more exact quote. I paraphrased it from memory.

[Theophylact]

cracked, there's no point discussing it if you don't understand the basics.

If I'm traveling at half the speed of light (with respect to the ground) on a railway car, and I fire a bullet forward at half the speed of light (relative to myself), a stationary observer on the ground will not see that bullet moving at the speed of light. The velocities do not add arithmetically.