this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2023
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239
Light-Speed Spaceships Would Have Trouble Phoning Home (www.iflscience.com)
submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Subspace is the answer of course!

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[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I was actually wondering what would happen if you would just put a big rod of metal in 0 g and pushed it? If one end shifts 1 cm, how long would it take for the other end to also shift? Wouldn't that be instant? Well, apparently the signal would travel at the speed of sound. Which is weird, right? It makes sense but it's still weird.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

It's mechanical, so each atom is pushing against the ones immediately next to it, and so on, until other end moves.

It would be interesting to work out how much a metal bar the length of our solar system would compress when you push it..