Imagine a Ferris wheel on space, made of carbon nanotubes, the diameter of the wheel is about the distance between Sun and Earth, rotational speed is 8 RPM. So can the wheel go faster than light without breaking?

No.

Here neither.

 

Forget carbon nanotubes until someone observes decent properties in a full-scale composite. Think graphite composite meanwhile. A rod of graphite composite achieves about 1000m/s at the tip, whatever its length.

Whatever the material, the energy requirement to achieve the speed of light, at the edge, would be a similar asymptote to that of any other acceleration of matter.

Whatever the material, the energy requirement to achieve the speed of light, at the edge, would be a similar asymptote to that of any other acceleration of matter.

 

You wouldn't get close, though. The structure would fail long before you approached c on the perimeter.

Here neither.

 

Forget carbon nanotubes until someone observes decent properties in a full-scale composite. Think graphite composite meanwhile. A rod of graphite composite achieves about 1000m/s at the tip, whatever its length.

thanks, interesting. Ooops, I meant 0.125 RPM, not 8 RPM (1/8=0.125)., sunlight takes 8 minutes and 20 seconds to arrive on earth.

Edited August 18, 201411 yr by Myuncle

 

You wouldn't get close, though. The structure would fail long before you approached c on the perimeter.

 

This.

 

But also this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehrenfest_paradox

If you said in your post that the wheel is made out of carbon nanotubes, the strongest material, you probably already knew that it was going to break.

To spin faster than light is nearly impossible, at least you know Einstein's theory of general relativity tells you you can globally, not locally. But you need new maths description then.