Expert: Ed - 6/3/2004

Question
Hello sir,
I am anup & here is a question for you.

1)Consider,a huge circle made up of very light weight/mass wire
IN SPACE.Suppose cicumference of this circle is 6 lakh km.

2)Now, we join any point on this circle to its center with another
light weight wire.Thus,this wire will define the radius of huge
circle in space.

3)Now, we fix a 'T' shaped handle at the center of this circle(ofcourse
handle is of light weight/mass too).

4)Thus, we have joined every link with eachother & there is no relative
motion between circular wire, radius wire & the handle.

5)Now, we rotate the handle in such a way that it will come to its
original position after one second.

6)Thus, as there is no relative motion between links,any point on the
circumference of circle could/must have travelled 6 lakh km in just one
second!

7)Here,angular velocity is just 1rev/sec & linear velocity of any point
on the circumference is still less than light speed but the every point
has travelled huge DISTANCE which even light cann't trvel in 1sec.

8)Although its impossible to build such a mechanism in space but we
still can find out the results of this mechanism.Again,energy required
to rotate the handle will not be huge one,we can afford that much of energy
as whole system weighs very low.

9)If we make circles of huge diameters we still can exceed the speed
limit of light.

10)Is above arrangement is really true/possible? Can such arrangements
cover huge distance in no time?

Answer
Anup,
Before I forget -- you should not assume that people on the internet willknow what a "lakh" is.  I live in the USA, and it was an unfamiliar term to me.

Anyway -- your idea sounds great, but unfortunately it would not work.  It would require an infinite amount of energy to make the circlemove at the spped you describe.  This is impossible.  So the circle would never get moving fast enough.

Keep Looking Up!
--Ed