Wouldn’t all the particles somehow end up all going the same speed? And not only that but the out side of the disc would be come infinitely heavy and if you could keep it together it wouldn’t accelerate after the outside got almost to C. I’m trying to visualize what would happen to the disc because if you kept trying to spin it wouldn’t the whole thing become a single ring? Can someone help me calculate how many rpm a 4 inch disc would have to be spinning to hit exactly C?

Come on, that’s a simple calculation.  (C X 60 X 5280 X 12)/(Pi X 4)

Occam

Yeah i got confused when i divided C/the circumference in miles and had 13 zeros

Wait a minute.  Any intelligent high schooler should be able to figure that out.  C = 186,000 mi/sec Multiply that by 60 to get mi/minute.  Multiply it by 5280 to get feet per minute.  Multiply it by 12 to get inches per minute.  You said the diameter of the disk was 4 inches.  Pi X diameter equals circumference.  So, Pi X 4 equals the circumference of the disk in inches.  Divide this into C expressed in inches per minute and you get the RPM.

There’s a difference between being a dumb high schooler and a lazy one.  I’m sure you are far brighter than necessary answer the simple question you posed in your prior post.  So I wasn’t putting you down for being dumb; rather I was surprised that as intelligent as you appear to be, that you begged for help on this calculation.

Occam

Yeah well I am smartish but i have trouble keeping it all straight, while converting all the different units and such especially when i tried to use mph for C instead of /second and put the circumference in miles and i just was using confusing units i guess well thanks sorry i got defensive, don’t see why you focused only on that part of my question though as the other parts are far more interesting

Sorry, as a moderator, I have to read all the posts and feel guilty even taking the time to respond to any.  So, I do the quickies preferentially. 

BTW, you might want to pick up a simple book on dimensional analysis at the local library.  I ran into this by accident my first year of college.  It’s so simple that I was shocked that it never occurred to me, but it is surprisingly powerful in helping keep track of just what you mentioned having trouble with. 

Occam

I found this to be a VERY interesting article… It begun with one of my earliest “science” questions… How fast can information be transmitted by ANY means… I would like to say that as far as the pencil question goes, the answer to me is pretty obvious (would NOT happen due to deformation of the pencil :D) and has been answered many many times in this thread. I have nothing new to add to this matter. But the reason i am posting a reply is this. It is possible to have SOMETHING (clearly not a physical thing) travel faster than light. What do i mean? First let me explain myself. I am aware that nothing with mass can travel (accelerate for some of you) at the speed of light and above. I am aware that information (as we define it) cannot do the same thing. I am not talking about either of these. I am posting the following for an event that not only can hypothetically occur, but one that has been observed many many times before. It is possible to do something that might resemble motion or information delivery at first glance, faster than light. But even though it IS faster that light, it is neither of the two (motion or information).

Assume you have a beacon that is rotating at a constant speed of lets say 2RPS (rotation per second). And its emitting light. Now assume you have a GREAT wall that is half a circle with the beacon as a center, the radius of which is, lets say, 2 light years. We start the beacon, let it reach its maximum speed, turn the light on, leave it revolve a whole 180degrees and shut it of. What we see at the wall’s end is the following. A dot of light that covers the distance of 4π light years (the length of the wall) in 1 second!!!! The dot will appear on the wall a good 2 years AFTER we shut the beacon down but the distance WILL be covered in 1 second FLAT.

I have to make a note here. THIS IS NOT IN CONTRADICTION WITH ANY SCIENTIFIC THEORIES. It is merely a fun mind game that lets you think about what we mean when we say speed limit and what this limit applies to. There is nothing that moves in my example. The motion is an illusion created by our mind as it tries to visualize what is happening. It sees a spiral of photons emitted from the beacon hit the surface of the wall and it perceives it as motion. Thats it.

i always played with this example in my mind when i was a kid and always tried to find a way of transferring information this way faster than light but of course none of them worked. :D:D

And as far as the part where this has been observed… Well we haven’t built a beacon in space and of course we haven’t built a massive wall around it either. What we HAVE observed though is the rotation of pulsars around themselves and they pretty much act as beacons too. :D

come on man think rationally.
who’s gonna sharpen that pencil?

http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2008-07/quantum-physics-glass