# How to exceed the speed of light **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 2, 2000, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exceed-the-speed-of-light/14244 "2000-03-02T16:43:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2000, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exceed-the-speed-of-light/14244/1 "2000-03-02T16:43:00Z")
There’s a flaw in this logic, but I don’t remember it: Let’s say that you have a giant disk. It’s so big, that it has a circumference of 187,000 miles. It makes one revolution in one second. If you’re at the perimeter, you have just exceeded the speed of light. Where is the flaw? ---
**Author:** ![Breckinshire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71c47a/32.png) [@Breckinshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Breckinshire)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2000, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exceed-the-speed-of-light/14244/2 "2000-03-02T16:51:00Z")
My physicist license was revoked, but it seems like it couldn’t make a revolution a second without hitting the ol’ speed of light, thus making anyone sitting on the edge a bowl of chunky salsa. Therefore, you wouldn’t be able to know if it did or not. Okay, okay, I’m an idiot. I admit it. Can we all just move on with our lives? * * * _A computer without a Microsoft operating system is like a dog without bricks tied to its head._ ---
**Author:** ![Spiritus\_Mundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c68b51/32.png) [@Spiritus\_Mundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiritus_Mundi)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2000, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exceed-the-speed-of-light/14244/3 "2000-03-02T17:00:00Z")
The flaw is that you cannot accelerate the object to that velocity. Saying that the object is a cylinder and that you are rotating it does not escape the limitations of relativity. You might just as well be saying, “what if we had a stick 187,000 miles long and we flipped it end over end in one second”. * * * - The best lack all conviction The worst are full of passionate intensity. \* ---
**Author:** ![frolix8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f04885/32.png) [@frolix8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/frolix8)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2000, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exceed-the-speed-of-light/14244/4 "2000-03-02T19:36:00Z")
Here are some more acceptable ways of travelling faster than C. [http://www.sciam.com/askexpert/physics/physics57/](http://www.sciam.com/askexpert/physics/physics57/)]really fast ---
**Author:** ![frolix8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f04885/32.png) [@frolix8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/frolix8)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2000, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exceed-the-speed-of-light/14244/5 "2000-03-02T19:38:00Z")
Another try [really fast](http://www.sciam.com/askexpert/physics/physics57/) ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2000, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exceed-the-speed-of-light/14244/6 "2000-03-02T19:41:00Z")
I suppose the most obvious flaw is that, presumably, the disc has mass. You’re going to need a whole lot of energy to get that thing shifting anywhere near c, and a whole lot more to nudge it even closer to c. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2000, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exceed-the-speed-of-light/14244/7 "2000-03-02T19:49:00Z")
List of small problems with the spinning disk: A disk that large will collapse under it’s own gravitational forces, into a sphere. A disk requires energy to accelerate in any manner, including rotation. The stresses involved in that acceleration will rip the disk to pieces long before the speed of light becomes a factor. Accelerating the outermost micron of the disk to C still requires an infinite amount of energy, since the mass of the outermost part is increasing as the speed increases, the same as if it were travelling in a straight line. As the mass of the edges increases, the problems of gravitation and centrifugal stress increase even beyond the already ridiculous magnitude which make the static object impossible. **Tris** ---
**Author:** ![Studi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Studi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Studi)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2000, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exceed-the-speed-of-light/14244/8 "2000-03-03T03:34:00Z")
Things can’t accelerate **past** or directly to the speed of light, but there’s nothing stopping particles from being created (such as tachyons) at speeds greater than c (therefore, they never accelerate past c). Studi * * * When I grow up, I want to be the Minister of Silly Walks.