Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: Titanscape on 06/01/2005 14:38:10
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Can sound in a Neutron star travel faster than light? For it is so dense. Sound would be like kinetic energy in that big nucleus.
Titanscape
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No mass or energy may propagate faster than c, the speed of light in vacuo. It may exceed the local speed of light in a given medium, such as the relativistic electrons in water radiating blue light.
Remember sound waves are moving matter, so no, it won't happen.
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Good point, I had never put this in perspective before. Imagine a dense rod in space like a diamond formed inside pressures of Jupiter's core. If it were 1 light minute long and pushed on one side, are you saying that the other side would take more than 1 minute to respond?
Titanscape
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That is a great question titanscape. The only thing is a 1 minute long rod is pretty long - its actually quite hard to imagine the scenario (1/8th the distance to the sun in fact). However, unless the rod was infinitely hard, it would need to temporarily compress before moving, and therefore it would take significantly longer than 1 minute to respond at the other end. Although this seems illogical, it is due to the lengths involved - the rod would only need to compress by 5.5594E-09% in order to be compressed by 1m.
"I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call it."
-Edgar Allan Poe
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what would happen assuming infinite stiffness and hardness?
wOw the world spins?
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quote:
Originally posted by Ultima
what would happen assuming infinite stiffness and hardness?
wOw the world spins?
well...first you have to get an infinite supply of Viagra [:D].....ok....I'm ready to ban myself !![:o)]
'Men are the same as women...just inside out !'
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I had the same thought when I read the question, but neilp was there first!
Infinities are a real problem. With infinite, er, stiffness, the speed of sound would be infinite, but how do you produced a sound in a medium with infinite stiffness?