starthaus
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yuiop said:What you call my "hack on the SR length contraction" was an equation that applied to an infinitesimal particle where "spagettification" does not occur.
A hack is always a hack no matter what extenuating circumstances you are trying to invoke.
Infinitesimal is very small, even smaller than an atom and is in fact as small is required to make the local spacetime flat (so negligable tidal forces). For a non infinitesimal rod some form of integrated length is required and I am aware as you are, as to how non trivial that is.
This simply means that your attempt at hacking length contraction in GR is unusable.
Now all the equations you give are for free falling particles. For a rigid rod parts of the rod are not free falling. By definition the rigidity of the rod prevents that. You said "front of the rod passes has a higher speed than the tail at any given moment", but Passionf has specified in the OP that we can use rockets to accelerate parts of the rod
The "rocket" bit is over the top, especially since the OP was about a free-falling rod.
to ensure that its proper length remains constant by whatever means necessary.
This only means that the problem cannot be treated kinematically since you are now dealing not only with the tidal and electromagnetic (internal) forces but also with the forces exerted by the two rockets.
So while natural free fall might mean that the rear clock is moving slower than the front clock at any given moment (and here you should define "moment" according to what reference frame) we can attach a rocket to the rear clock to make sure it goes at the same speed (insert according to what observer here) as the front clock if that is convenient to us.
Why entitles you to apply different rules to the spatial coordinate than to the time coordinate?
It is not unlike Born rigid acceleration, where all parts of a system are individually accelerated by the exact required amount to ensure constant proper length is obtained in the accelerating system. We are just trying to make the GR analogue of that.
I see, you plan to put a little rocket at infinitesimal distances from each other.
The point is that the OP problem is much more complicated so it cannot be reduced to simple kinematics.