To ponder

Dr Jones ( maitland@icarus.ihug.co.nz )
Sun, 22 Mar 1998 12:07:59 +1200

Now the idea of spinning masses has been gone over before on this list. Now
I have a theoretical that might provoke some thought.

Lets assume that attached to a 6,000rpm electric motor is a large gear with
teeth on the outside. That turns another, similar gear at a ratio of 1:100.
this is repeated a number of times, so that effectively you are gearing a
set of gears.

Lets also assume that the circumference of the gears is 10 meters.

After the fifth gear, the circumference is spinning at 6,000,000,000,000,000
rpm or 100,000,000,000,000 rps or 1,000,000,000,000 kilometers per second.

Light travels at 300,000 kps in vacuum.

Assuming that the gears aren't blown apart by the centrifugal forces in
operation, doesn't this mean that matter is travelling faster than the speed
of light? What effects could be expected?

Musing....

DrJ
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Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room
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