The speed of light is 299,792,458 m/s

Now take a disk with a circumference of 299,792,458 meters.
Circumference = 2 * Radius * Pi
Radius of this disk is 47,713,452 meters.

A point on the edge of a disk with a radius of 47,713,452 meters that makes one revolution in 1 second will be traveling
at the speed of light. What happens to this disk at that radius or of a radius greater than 48 million meters?

So a point on the rim of a 48+ million meter radius disk that makes a revolution in 1 second will or will not be moving faster than 299,792,458 m/s ?

technically you cannot go faster than the speed of light. but i am yet to understand why that is entirely, so i can't definitively tell you yes or no.

no need to try to explain it to me, i understand the basics, just not the why why whys.

migrena, your #1 up there is not going faster than c, but going faster than light in a medium. c is the speed of light in a vacuum.

yes, #1 should be classified as moving faster than light, my bad

you could use a dyson ring with large mass in its center, but you will need to find a way to increase its mass to balance centrifugal force (ie shoot some matter to its poles as you increase its spinning speed)

It's going at the speed of light in that medium...Since you are already moving you are not applying any additional speed to that light...it is still the same.

hit the nail on the head ;)

that is where consensus diverges. There are people who have quite differing opinions on that, take with a pinch of salt everything you learn in school that is physics related from the last 50 years, alot of it is high up for questioning.

If you think about what you are asking, lets imagine two people. one in a vehicle racing along at half the speed of light, the other far off and stationary. if the vehicle emits a pulse of laser light forwards, how can one observer see either 50% or 150% the speed of light, while the other sees 100%. I cannot answer your question. ask me again in 4 years when I have my masters in physics lol.

Posted By: bluebandit08

ok say you're going half the speed of light and then turn on the headlights. What happens? Everything I've ever read/heard says the light goes the speed of light in the medium, relative to yourself OR any onlooker. I have yet to understand why so far but this is what I understand. If someone can explain, please do.

You cannot "add momentums" when considering photons, because photons have no mass. Photons always travel at c in a vacuum.

ixnay on the otonphay assmay

I'm making a point.

*wishes he knew enough about physics to participate*

that is also how solar wind is supposed to work.

migrena
It's an extension of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. If you measure a photon's mass, you change its state.
In order to make any meaningful statements about photons, then, you need to disregard mass.

and the fact that a black hole is black.

lol :)

well it's black because light is sucked into it and not emitted, and light is sucked into it because it has mass and is therefore affected by the gravitational field.

no you are right, i get your point completely.

hmmm.... but if you think about it the same could be said about any orbiting body, they are simply following a straight line in a parobolic indentation of the space-time fabric caused by a larger mass. we recognise the slope of this fabric by the size of the force the mass experiences.

I think that is resultant of the difference in speed.

i mentioned this in one of topics here
photons mass was experimentally proven by measuring difference betwen expected and real stars positions during sun eclipse - measured positions of stars observed near sun was different from calculated if fotons wouldnt have mass, stars were observed closer to the sun thus proving that gravity affects photons, and because gravity affects only objects that have mass therfore fotons have mass
i hope my english was good enough to make this clear

Posted By: Udoboy

If you shine a light from the earth, it will travel the path photons take. The earth will travel a different path, due to gravity.

photons will travel different path because they have much smaller mass than earth and therfore they are much less affected by gravity

Posted By: wwbwb9636

So... I'll assume from the answers... that the disk will, in a sense, become a spiral, with the inside rotating, but as we approach the edge, it begins to slow down to nothing since it's to massive to move? (Then it begins to move backwards and then I am totally screwed)" TITLE="">

if it will be made from rubber then yes

wow i started somthing with alot of big words...

I am a physics student and the only reason I accept something I do not fully understand, such as the above, is because so many more knowledgable people than I do accept it. I just don't digest things I don't understand, simple as. The majority of physics within the last 50 years I view with extreme scepticism. especially quantum physics. yuck. wave-particle duality, ok, but tell me a particle could be anywhere in the universe until you measure it?

Isn't Dumbass the guy who wrote The Three Musketeers and the sequel The Man in the Iron Mask? I hear that there's going to be another sequel Iron Man coming out in May 2007 where Leonardo finally kicks some serious butt with his robot armor.

The Man in the Iron Mask was actually book 5. The second book was alright... the others were boggy in politics to get to the end.

That was the most awesome turn of a conversation I have ever seen, Taed. Thank you for that.