• Question: If i have a wooden board the length of a light year and push it will that not break the speed of light?

    Asked by p09bilalo to Emma, Jimmy, Janet, Niall, Simon on 18 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Niall Crawford

      Niall Crawford answered on 18 Mar 2013:

      well you would have to push it the length of itself (the end of it reaching where the starting point is), within a year.

    • Photo: James Holloway

      James Holloway answered on 18 Mar 2013:

      Niall has got it, and the other thing is the force you give on one end of the plank would take a long time to travel along the plank – the other end wouldn’t start moving straight away.

      The force would travel along the plank at the acoustic speed of sound in the wood, typically about 1000+ meters per second in a solid.

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