this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2025
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It can look dumb, but I always had this question as a kid, what physical principles would prevent this?

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[โ€“] adaveinthelife@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago

Go find a 30' stick and let us know if you can point it at the moon.

[โ€“] jerkface@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago

Putting it on the moon is just a distraction. It doesn't matter if the rod is 1m long or 100,000km.

[โ€“] Pacattack57@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

How heavy would a stick of this size weigh?

[โ€“] Spzi@lemm.ee 4 points 1 week ago

Weigh on Earth or on Moon?

[โ€“] TheGuyTM3@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

We're supposing that you have an herculean strengh and that weight is not a problem

[โ€“] GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 week ago

I enjoyed a lot of the discussion in the comments

[โ€“] fnrir@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

https://youtu.be/6g2bHqV01es

EDIT: It's in Polish, but it's still a good video.

[โ€“] echo@lemmings.world 3 points 1 week ago

The pole would basically be a space elevator. I suspect gravity and inertia would effectively keep you from moving the stick. Even if you could move it, you'd only be able to move it at a speed that would seem like it's stationary. As such, the light would still be faster.

That would not work. Pushing an object is transmitting kinetic energy to it. The object will push back, and energy would not be distributed to the whole object at the same time.
If the object cannot be altered in any way, then the energy would not be transferred to it, and if it has enough plasticity to absorb the kinetic energy, it would be spread in a wave to the tip. A wave that would always be slower than light.

Now stop fooling around and give Ruyi Jingu Bang back to Sun Wukong.

[โ€“] ladicius@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What about the mass of that stick? Inertial doesn't care for your little silly games.

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why wouldn't this work

because bullets are faster than whatever the fuck speed stickman is achieving
and even bullets are slower than light

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