# Speed of Light versus Scale **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 28, 2001, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed-of-light-versus-scale/66820 "2001-05-28T23:35:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed-of-light-versus-scale/66820/1 "2001-05-28T23:35:03Z")
If a bipedal creature of sufficient size and height with a stride of 150 x 10[sup]6[/sup] km were standing on the earth, would it take the creature more than eight minutes to step on the sun? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed-of-light-versus-scale/66820/2 "2001-05-28T23:41:32Z")
If I did the math right, every step would be about the distance of the sun from the earth. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed-of-light-versus-scale/66820/3 "2001-05-28T23:43:12Z")
Right. The question is, would the creature require roughly 8 minutes to take a single step? ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed-of-light-versus-scale/66820/4 "2001-05-28T23:44:38Z")
“Roughly” should read “more than”. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed-of-light-versus-scale/66820/5 "2001-05-28T23:46:24Z")
Not if he were wearing PF Flyers. ---
**Author:** ![messiah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3e96dc/32.png) [@messiah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/messiah)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed-of-light-versus-scale/66820/6 "2001-05-28T23:52:05Z")
A creature of that size, I think the sun would come to him. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed-of-light-versus-scale/66820/7 "2001-05-28T23:57:30Z")
Regardless, would the creature require more than 8 minutes to take a step? Or would he have to run along through space like an elephant in super-slowmo? ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2001, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed-of-light-versus-scale/66820/8 "2001-05-29T00:19:13Z")
Think of the mechanics of such a creature. the amount of mass that must be accelerated, the inertia that must be overcome not only to start walking but to stop. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2001, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed-of-light-versus-scale/66820/9 "2001-05-29T00:25:32Z")
I am not a physicist, but it seems to me that a creature that has mass would need something other than muscle power to accelerate his mass faster than the speed of light. Therefore, he would take longer(probably much longer) than 8 minutes to take that step to the sun. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2001, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed-of-light-versus-scale/66820/10 "2001-05-29T00:28:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Libertarian \* > \*\*If a bipedal creature of sufficient size and height with a stride of 150 x 10[sup]6[/sup] km were standing on the earth, would it take the creature more than eight minutes to step on the sun? \*\* It couldn’t walk faster than the speed of light, regardless of how big it is. The faster it’s stride, the more massive it becomes, blah, blah, blah. you know, all that relativity stuff. It would basically be like takin a step in a swimming pool where the faster you step, the thicker the liquid gets until at the speed of light, it’s a solid. Kind of a simplistic view, but you get the idea. ---
**Author:** ![messiah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3e96dc/32.png) [@messiah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/messiah)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2001, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed-of-light-versus-scale/66820/11 "2001-05-29T00:33:19Z")
If we were assuming a creature of many earth masses, beginning with zero velocity with respect to sun/earth, and using the earth to push against, then even if the earth were accelerated to nearly s.o.l, the creature would reach only a fraction of that velocity and hence take much more than 8 mins. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2001, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed-of-light-versus-scale/66820/12 "2001-05-29T01:56:22Z")
On top of everything else, the nerve impulse going from the brain to the leg can travel no faster than the speed of light. Most likely, much slower. ---
**Author:** ![Mikahw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Mikahw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikahw)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2001, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed-of-light-versus-scale/66820/13 "2001-05-29T05:06:14Z")
Umm, how would it take a step in a vacuum? To step requires land. I suppose the creature could use the other planets as stepping stones, but still… ---
**Author:** ![Mikahw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Mikahw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikahw)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2001, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed-of-light-versus-scale/66820/14 "2001-05-29T05:08:59Z")
I didn’t post that, really. Who needs stepping stones when you can have one foot on the sun and the other foot on the earth? \ ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2001, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed-of-light-versus-scale/66820/15 "2001-05-29T06:02:42Z")
This is kind of a variation on the “what if I had a solid steel bar that went to Alpha Centauri” question. If you pull on the bar on Earth, wouldn’t you see it move on Alpha Centauri instantly? Then you could communicate faster than light. Of course, pulling on the bar really means that you pull on the atoms around your hand, which pull on the atoms farther along on the bar, which pull on the next atoms, which pull on the next atoms, which pull on the next…meaning that you really create a wave of moving bar propagating at the speed of light or slower. Or you actually stretch the bar, since that amount of deformation is imperceptable. Or more likely, you don’t do anything, since the mass of the bar is greater than the earth. So, if your creature decided to extend its leg towards the sun, it really accelerates a wave of atoms toward the sun, or more likely snaps the leg in half when the leverage gets too much. The leg travels at significantly less than light speed, especially considering how much energy it would require to accelerate the mass of a leg that big. ---
**Author:** ![Phobos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Phobos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phobos)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2001, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed-of-light-versus-scale/66820/16 "2001-05-29T12:51:46Z")
It’s similar to this… [Superluminal Scissors](http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/scissors.html) ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2001, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed-of-light-versus-scale/66820/17 "2001-05-29T15:22:53Z")
I don’t know why you’re even asking this question, **Libertarian**. Nothing can move faster than the speed of light. It takes light 8 minutes to move from the Earth to the Sun or vice versa. Why would you wonder if a physical object could travel the distance more quickly, just because it’s large? Regardless of how long it would take, such a step wouldn’t be good for the Earth, I’d bet. Imagine someone stepping from one rowboat to another in a lake. The first boat would be pushed away in reaction to the step. Earth would be pushed out of orbit by the giant’s step. Let’s hope no several-AU-sized giants get that idea into their heads.