Can a wheel spin faster than light?

[Myuncle]

Imagine a Ferris wheel on space, made of carbon nanotubes, the diameter of the wheel is about the distance between Sun and Earth, rotational speed is 8 RPM. So can the wheel go faster than light without breaking?

[Delta1212]

No.

[Enthalpy]

Here neither.

 

Forget carbon nanotubes until someone observes decent properties in a full-scale composite. Think graphite composite meanwhile. A rod of graphite composite achieves about 1000m/s at the tip, whatever its length.

[dimreepr]

Whatever the material, the energy requirement to achieve the speed of light, at the edge, would be a similar asymptote to that of any other acceleration of matter.

[swansont]

Whatever the material, the energy requirement to achieve the speed of light, at the edge, would be a similar asymptote to that of any other acceleration of matter.

 

You wouldn't get close, though. The structure would fail long before you approached c on the perimeter.

[Myuncle]

Here neither.

 

Forget carbon nanotubes until someone observes decent properties in a full-scale composite. Think graphite composite meanwhile. A rod of graphite composite achieves about 1000m/s at the tip, whatever its length.

thanks, interesting. Ooops, I meant 0.125 RPM, not 8 RPM (1/8=0.125)., sunlight takes 8 minutes and 20 seconds to arrive on earth.

Edited August 18, 2014 by Myuncle

[Strange]

 

You wouldn't get close, though. The structure would fail long before you approached c on the perimeter.

 

This.

 

But also this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehrenfest_paradox

[Cosmobrain]

If you said in your post that the wheel is made out of carbon nanotubes, the strongest material, you probably already knew that it was going to break.

[Nicholas Kang]

To spin faster than light is nearly impossible, at least you know Einstein's theory of general relativity tells you you can globally, not locally. But you need new maths description then.