Can Faster-Than-Light Communication Be Achieved with a Long Pole?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the concept of faster-than-light communication using a hypothetical long pole connecting two distant Earths. Participants explore the implications of mechanical movement and the propagation of forces through materials, questioning the feasibility of such communication methods.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Technical explanation

Main Points Raised

  • One participant proposes a scenario where a long pole is pushed from one Earth to another, suggesting that the movement could allow for faster-than-light communication.
  • Another participant counters that mechanical movement propagates at the speed of sound in the material, which is significantly slower than the speed of light.
  • A different participant comments on the bending of the pole and suggests that the movement would travel like a wave, implying limitations on the speed of communication.
  • Another participant mentions modern measuring technology that can detect delays in mechanical responses over short distances, indicating practical applications of studying material properties.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the feasibility of faster-than-light communication through mechanical means. While some explore the hypothetical scenarios, others emphasize the physical limitations imposed by the speed of sound in materials, indicating a lack of consensus.

Contextual Notes

The discussion assumes the pole cannot break and that no other complications arise, but it does not resolve the implications of these assumptions on the proposed scenarios.

Jarfi
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1.
Say there are two Earth's and many light years apart. You have a very long pole which is connected to both Earth's. And one guy on Earth 1 starts pushing/tilting the other end forward. So the guy on Earth 2 feels the pole being pushed forward. guy on Earth pushes pole forward in morse code... Faster than light communication wtf??

2.
say you have a very long pole many light years long pointed out from the earth. It is stuck in a machine that can move it right and left. Let's make the machine move the pole 90 degrees right. Moving the pole takes only 1 second so next to the machine the pole went maybe 5 km p hour i don't know. But at the end of the pole many light years it went much much faster than light... Wtf?

Can anyone explains what happens? and the poles can't break or something like that we assume nothing goes wrong
 
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All mechnical movement - pushing, rotation etc - propagates at a speed of sound in matrial, in metals - about 3-5km/s, about 100000 times slower than c.
 
A ok so the pole would bend and when pushed the movement would travel like a wawe
 
Actually, with modern measuring technology, the measurement of the delay between hitting one end of a 'rigid' ceramic rod and the other end responding can be done over distances like a meter. This is used to study certain bulk properties of ceramics.
 

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