- #1
pgcurt
- 6
- 0
Special relativity tells us information can not be sent faster than the speed of light. I believe Einstein, but was curious what people thought about the following thought experiment:
The nucleus of an atom has a particular width. With sufficiently advanced technology I could setup a detector that detects motion at the far side of a nucleus. I should be able to “bump” the nucleus from the front side and detect the movement on the back side. One of two things will happen.
1. The detector will instantaneously detect the movement. This would occur if the nucleus is dense and non-elastic. This would reveal an exception to the “cannot transmit information faster than light” rule (albeit at a very small scale).
2. The detector will NOT instantaneously detect the movement. This reveals the dense nucleus itself behaves in a wave like fashion.
I'm an amateur so my question may not even be valid, but I welcome any feedback.
The nucleus of an atom has a particular width. With sufficiently advanced technology I could setup a detector that detects motion at the far side of a nucleus. I should be able to “bump” the nucleus from the front side and detect the movement on the back side. One of two things will happen.
1. The detector will instantaneously detect the movement. This would occur if the nucleus is dense and non-elastic. This would reveal an exception to the “cannot transmit information faster than light” rule (albeit at a very small scale).
2. The detector will NOT instantaneously detect the movement. This reveals the dense nucleus itself behaves in a wave like fashion.
I'm an amateur so my question may not even be valid, but I welcome any feedback.