Instant communication between great distances?

[dollarbill220]

Ok, anyone browsing such a forum as this should know all too well the premise that nothing can travel faster than light. BUT!... and please humor me here, these are some very far-fetched theoretical situations.

Let's say you are on the earth, and I am on some distant planet. Let's just say Gliese 581-D for the sake of argument. However far it is, 20 ly or whatever, let's say we had a giant pole that could stretch the two distances. If the pole moves, would we not feel it on both ends at the same time? Could we send signals using Morse Code with the pole, or something like it, and receive them instantly?

 

[Pengwuino]

No. Signals like that travel in vibrations at the speed of sound in the material which is always far slower than the speed of light.

 

[Chronos]

General relativity forbids a totally inelastic object, which makes condensed matter an interesting subject.

 

[dollarbill220]

Super, I'll but that for a dollar. I suppose if that was possible, someone would have thought about it before me. Thanks for answering my question, that's all I needed to know... for now.

 

[FtlIsAwesome]

Yep, I've heard this idea before.
To repeat what others said: The pole is limited by lightspeed.