- #1
Jonathan
- 365
- 0
When you push on an object and accelerate it to some relativistically (so we can really, really ignore lorentz contraction) small velocity (say a nice 1 m/s), does the impluse from your push travel through that object as a longitudinal pressure wave at the speed of sound (what ever that may be for that object)? It seems like that should be true, but that also implies that the object should contract slightly and that one end of the object would attain the 1 m/s velocity before the other end does, (assuming that the object is long enough that one can reach this velocity before the pressure wave meets the other end) and for some reason I don't like that conclusion, even though it makes sense.