Thread: Engineering or Physics ?

Originally Posted by VladTepes

Gear two rotates at 2.5c although within and external frame of reference it'd be rotating significantly slower I believe.

I dont understand how a gear would rotate at (the speed of light). Given that light travels at 2.9e6m/s2 its like trying to transcribe your engine's speed (rpm) into km/h.

Np I think it means any given tooth moves around the circimference at the speed of c

rotational velocity is usually indicated as the speed at the outer circumference of the gear.....

since the outer circumference of the larger gear is in contact with the circumference of the smaller gear they both rotate at the same speed, its just the smaller gear does so at a higher shaft RPM than the larger one. The smaller gear would only be able to exert 4/10ths of the torque on its shaft as compared to the larger gear.

Assuming you could build the gears strong enough and well enough to turn at the speed of light putting them into a gearbox and then attaching them to an Idling 4bd1 would still destroy them.



Its Not physics
Its Not Engineering
Its Mechanics.

As Dave points out, the speed of light is not applicable to angular velocity. If the teeth of one gear travel at the velocity of light, however, then so do the teeth of the other gear.

John

And of course any gear tooth travelling at C would be infinitely heavy, and would strenuously resist travelling in a circle. Big gearbox bang time.

Dopey philosophers!

forgive my ignorance here, but doesn't time start to do funny things as one approaches and exceeds the speed of light. Interesting with two gears traveling at light speeds in close proximity

Why is it so?

Just like liquid gets into this chalk.

A glass and half of full cream dairy milk in every 200 gram block.

Originally Posted by VladTepes

Then you would need a BLOODY GOOD lubricant, Regards Frank.