Posted by MrTim (152.163.252.134) on August 25, 2003 at 21:37:39:
In Reply to: Question posted by grim on August 25, 2003 at 18:37:42:
: Here's a theoretical wheel, constructed out of material that could stand any stress force. It rests on perfect bearings that can support any load, any speed. Centripetal force is not a factor, its enclosed in a perfect vacuum chamber.
: If it is truly out of balance it should start and accelerate. Since it can never reach a bottom, or stopping point, it should continuously accelerate. As it approaches light speed, Einstein says it should all get heavier, but
: the imbalance would STILL be maintained in spite of that! Would it create a huge explosion as it reached the critical mass/energy point, or would it become so heavy it would end up being an artificially created "black hole",
: or would it fling itself though the space-time continuum?
: grim
Assuming a utilization of gravitational energy, said *hypothetical* wheel will accelerate to terminal velocity and reach equilibrium with the input energy of it's environment i.e. it won't go faster than than the energy it absorbs.
Explosion - No, since these happen from the inside out ("constructed out of material that could stand any stress force")
Mass/weight (and whatever) is relative(ity). I believe Einstein covered this already ;-)
Of course, this could all break down if said wheel was to draw it's energy from a "black hole". Which is what you need to achieve such high acceleration (to "light speed"). Yet, since not even light can escape a "black hole", then neither can the wheel, which leads us to a delightful thing called a 'paradox', of which I think I shall now go pour myself one...
(Hypothetically speaking, of course...)