Funnily enough, this is all
wrong. I once believed this too, but consider: if I pull on the rod, how does the rod know it has been pulled? By the interaction of its component
particles,
interactions which are propagated at
light speed. No faster. Even if the rod were perfectly inelastic, the signal would still only travel at
c. The point is that while certain phenomena appear to be faster-than-light, information cannot exceed c.
TallRoo informs me that the original WU was a joke. I apologise - but it is an interesting point.
mr.nick: I'm intrigued by the source you cite. Whilst the existence of gravity as
curved space-time is widely accepted, it's generally thought that perturbations in this travel at c. It's a continuing question in physics to decide what would happen to the
Solar System if the Sun were deleted. However, there is very little experimental evidence about the propagation of gravity. It's probably time
Pseudomancer stepped in to clear this one up.
no comply: (
I'm leaving my response to n_c's WU in place, but bear in mind it refers only to certain bits of his article, and dates from the same time as the original debate.) From the article you reference:
Despite the claims, there is no reason to believe that either Einstein's theory of special relativity or causality has been violated, a point that is discussed in the original paper. In fact, the whole speed of light issue is a bit of a red herring. It is true that "something" appears to move faster than the speed of light but that "something" does not carry information and it has been observed before and the fact that it happens is a direct result of Einstein's theory!
We cannot observe any signal moving faster than light!
Addendum for no_comply: It may suprise you to learn this, but some of us are physicists. I have taken (and passed) a degree course in special relativity. Pseudomancer clearly knows whereof he speaks. Siren
should know whereof he speaks. nc, please redirect your bile to where it will be useful.
nc has since told me that he doesn't consider my one course (not my only physics course, just the most relevant) makes me a physicist. I also quote from his own WU: 'You aren't physicists. Oh i'm sorry that makes all of your write ups opinions.' So only a priest can know religion, and only a doctor can know biology? I don't buy that. And Siren is an astronomer, and I
believe Psuedomancer is a physicist - his
the Theory of Relativity WU is a classic. I never said the information/light barrier
couldn't be broken - I said that it
hadn't.
Node what you know,
node what you don't know.
Siren: Thanks for tidying up your WU. Well said.