Mechanical Communication

[blike]

Alright, I can't remember where I read this, but it posed an interesting question.

Assume we are communicating with another "earth" that is a light year away. Using communication with light, it would take a year for information to arrive to our planet from theirs.

Now, say I have a keyboard attached to a metal pole that stretches from our planet to theirs. Now, when I make a keystroke, the poll is pushed outwards.

Would they, on the receiving end, 1 light year away, instantly see the poll being pushed and pulled?

[fafalone]

It's a compression which propagates through the material at subluminal speeds.

[aman]

I played with the idea in the past too. The compression wave would not keep up with an electrical charge induced in the end of the bar. Electricity will ring the bell first at the other end. You'd think there was a more efficient way of doing it, even than electrical current. Super conductive material is the fastest hardwired way and could almost keep up with photons or energy waves. Hydraulics also with water being uncompressable still takes "mechanical" time to express a force and it is below the speed of light.
We could use mind power. Have a real paranoid individual do something real embarassing. Of course the entire universe knows exactly what he did. Just ask him.
Besides that brilliant suggestin I'll just keep working on it.
Thanks blike. Food for thought.
Just aman