Theoretically is it possibly to break the speed of light?

Question

I'm only in year nine so im sorry if this sounds stupid... But lets say you got something that spun around at/very near the speed of light and you attatched a very long piece of unbreakable string and made it spin at the speed of light. Theoretically wouldn't the end of the string be spinning faster than the speed of light?

Answer 1

An object travelling at faster than the speed of light would have to have an imaginary mass (ie a multiple of sqrt(-1)).

Answer 2

thats the reason why scietiss say that such a situation cant happen...meaning a tiny thing cant be made to spin in the speed of light...if at all you attatch a string like that which spins it, nature(or physics, im not sure) makes sure that the point on string that spins with the largest velocity is either equal or less than the speed of light which inturn slows the speed of the spinning ball sublumious(below 3*10^8 m/s)

Answer 3

It's a good question!

When Einstein originally made his assumption that the speed of light is finite and constant, he had to find evidence for it in previous experiments. (The most important of those being the Michaelson-Morely experiment that showed that the speed of light does not change in a vaccuum.) Einstein was known for his famous thought questions - just like the one you are asking! And he and many of his contemporaries thought over and explored such questions for months or years.

When they used thought questions to explore speeds beyond the speed of light, they found a lot of impossible answers (like infinite energy, breaking causality, decreasing entropy). Soon they found out that relativity theory was accurate and that the speed of light was not only finite and constant - but the fastest speed possible. This is because in relativity theory, to get the speed of light you need to have zero mass (since mass increases with increasing velocity - any mass tends to infinity as it approaches the speed of light. thus an ever increasing acceleration is needed just to push it closer to the speed of light)

Is it possible tobreak the speed of light? No, too many impossible things would be possible and we would observes those things happen in nature.

In answer to your second question: yes. If one was able to reach speed above the speed of light, then you would be correct. The further out the string is the faster the end of the string moves compared to the inner portion of the string. But this is all theoretical.

No one knows why there is no speed beyond the speed of light - it is something we find true about nature. This is why Einstein had to call it a postulate.

Hope that helps.

Answer 4

No, the string would take on a spiral shape.  As you approach the speed of light, the E=MC² deal means that you have to push not only the thing, but the energy you've already put into it.  This goes up and up near the speed of light.  You'd have to push infinitely hard (or yank your string infinitely hard).

Answer 5

Well theoretically if it was travelling at the speed of light, it would be unseeable to the average human eye. But answerining you question, i would assume if it was travelling quicker than light, than it would be travelling back in time, because it would be going so quickly.