Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Originally Posted By: Nick R
Yes. For example, if you stand in a field, with the moon in one side of the sky, and spin around at a relatively normal rate.... Relative to you, the moon is moving faster than the speed of light.
Nope, YOU have to move faster than the speed of light in order to observe the moon moving faster than the speed of light. Think of releasing water from a filled sink down a rotating drain. What the rotating drain can observe is the water near the edge of the rotating surface rotates around itself at the same speed of its own rotation, not the water 5" away from itself suddenly travel side way faster than its own rotation (it hasn't reach the edge of the rotating drain yet).
Quote:
Also, if you take a laser that is capable of going extreme distances (thousands, and thousands of miles) and shake it back and forth from the wrist, the end of the laser is going faster than the speed of light.
Absolutely not. Have you try spraying your car with a garden hose while shaking it? Did the water that touches your car "travel" faster than the water speed coming out of the garden hose? The laser is just a glorified water stream coming out of a garden hose.
You are not thinking about this the right way. Nothing is physically moving faster than the speed of light- it simply appears to be doing so. I' m bad at explaining this kind of thing, so I will just copy from the wikipedia page.
FTL phenomena
In these examples, certain influences may appear to travel faster than light, but they do not convey energy or information faster than light, so they do not violate special relativity.
[edit]Daily motion of the Heavens
For an earthbound observer objects in the sky complete one revolution around the earth in 1 day. Proxima Centauri, which is the nearest star outside the Solar system, is about 4 light years away.[31] On a geostationary view Alpha Centauri has a speed many times greater than "c" as the rim speed of an object moving in a circle is a product of the radius and angular speed.[32] It is also possible on a geostatic view for objects such as comets to vary their speed from subluminal to superluminal and vice versa simply because the distance from the earth varies. Comets may have orbits which take them out to more than 1000 AU.[33] Circumference of a circle radius 1000 AU is greater than one light day. In other words, a comet at such a distance is superluminal in a geostatic frame.
[edit]Light spots and shadows
If a laser is swept across a distant object, the spot of light can easily be made to move at a speed greater than c.[34] Similarly, a shadow projected onto a distant object can be made to move faster than c.[35] In neither case does any information travel faster than light.
Another example is my moon example. If you spin around once per second, with the moon near the horizon, if you look at it from a relative point of view, relative to you the moon is completing a complete orbit in one second. The circumference of the moons orbit is roughly 1,480,000 miles. So it would appear that the moon, if you are spinning 1 time per second, would appear to be moving 1,480,000 per second- which is greater than the speed of light.
Again, no information or matter is being transmitted/moved FTL, this is purely abstract relative stuff.