Testing Relativity: Spinning in Space - Feasible?

[jreelawg]

I was thinking about ways to test relativity, and time dilation.

The idea popped in my head of designing something, housing a clock, with the intention of getting it to spin in the vacuum of space, as fast as possible, and observe the difference in time.

Is this feasible? Has this been done before?

Aside from the relativity aspect, I just thought it would be cool to see how fast we could spin something.

I imagine a skinny cylinder, with receiving antennas at each end, powered by microwaves beamed into it from separate power sources. I'm not sure what type of propulsion would be used.

Has this been done before? What is the artificial RPM world record?

Also, what is the fastest know natural spinning object in space?

 

[tiny-tim]

hi jreelawg!

I was thinking about ways to test relativity, and time dilation.

The idea popped in my head of designing something, housing a clock, with the intention of getting it to spin in the vacuum of space, as fast as possible, and observe the difference in time.

how would this test relativity?

the only relevant parameter is the speed, and even if you could spin it 1,000 times a second with a diameter of a metre, that still wouldn't be any faster than a rocket

plus … won't very accurate clocks get dyspepsia if you treat them like that?

 

[jreelawg]

hi jreelawg!


how would this test relativity?

the only relevant parameter is the speed, and even if you could spin it 1,000 times a second with a diameter of a metre, that still wouldn't be any faster than a rocket

plus … won't very accurate clocks get dyspepsia if you treat them like that?

I had the idea that in space, you could get an object to spin much faster than a rocket. Two things are in your favor for in this case. First, you can use a nearby power source, and observe the object. This means, that you could keep it accelerating until it becomes impossible, at which point I would guess is a very extreme velocity.

Can you tell me why you think we could not spin an object in space fast enough to test relativity?

 

[tiny-tim]

an you tell me why you think we could not spin an object in space fast enough to test relativity?

i think it would fall apart

 

[pallidin]

i think it would fall apart

Exactly. Spinning an object too fast, in space or on earth, can and will cause catastrophic centrifugal instability and a potentially lethal environment from high velocity fragments of the breakdown.

 

[Andy Resnick]

I was thinking about ways to test relativity, and time dilation.

The idea popped in my head of designing something, housing a clock, with the intention of getting it to spin in the vacuum of space, as fast as possible, and observe the difference in time.

Is this feasible? Has this been done before?

Sort of:

http://einstein.stanford.edu/

 

[pallidin]

Nice read Andy. Also nice web site. Had not been there before.