Understand something about velocity of light. Answer this ..?

Question

There are two planets M and N one light year apart. A rope is attached on one planet(say M) that spans the entire distance between the two planets. A heavy object is tied on the other end of the rope so that it is hanging above the surface of the other planet( say N). The rope is perfectly weightless, inflexible etc. There is tension in the rope because gravity of the planet N pulls the object suspended from it. Now the rope is cut from the planet M. Explain what happens!! The time and events taking place on both planets ? starting from the instant the rope is cut at planet M .
( We know information cannot travel faster than light)

Answer 1

Has anyone notices that the answer given by "d_1167" has absolutely nothing to do with the question which was asked?
In fact, his answer was not even his own, he merely copy-pasted it from a web site and then did not even have the decency to site it,
http://education.vsnl.com/karnik/velocity_of_light.pdf
or the HTML version,
http://66.218.69.11/search/cache?p=education.vsnl.com%2Fkarnik%2Fvelocity_of_light.pdf&ei=UTF-8&fr=FP-tab-web-t&x=wrt&u=education.vsnl.com/karnik/velocity_of_light.pdf&d=FNtzZDmtMwG4&icp=1&.intl=us


Anyway, to get back to the question at hand,
I would have to lean somewhat towards the direction of the answer given by "NotEasilyFooled".
The speed at which the effects of cutting the rope on planet M would not reach the 2nd planet (N) until at least 1 year after it happened since no information can travel fast than light.

Since the rope is massless (but we assume it to act as a normal rope anyway), there is no reason to think that it would necesarily fall the the surface of of planet N except for the fac that there was a force of tension in the rope when it was cut, pulling it towards the surface of planet N. But we already assumed it was massless (or at least "weigthless")....applying a force to a massless object puts us in a rather awkward position (F = ma).

Answer 2

My guess: the tension goes out of the rope on the Planet M side. This lack of tension travels up the rope at some speed (less than the speed of light). The untense portion of the rope begins to drift. Over a year later, the entire rope is untense and the rock begins to accelerate towards Planet N.

Answer 3

If there is constant tension on the entire string all the time in one direction. I would say that as soon as the string is allowed to move in that direction (towards N) it will do so immediately along it's whole length. Gravity is acceleration and the weight (therefore string) is trying to accelerate.

Since the string is weightless. I imagine that it would continue to flap around in space for a long time, unless it started getting wound around the planet like a spool.

Answer 4

I think that we have to ask our selves where does the tension force of the robe come from and how does it affect all the robe
It deals with sophiscated bonds among the robe molecules,these bonds are based on the electromagnetic forces and electomagnetic fields which travels by speed of light,then the robe won't (feel) it was cut till data arrives with speed of light and this applies on both terminals m,n.

Answer 5

it would depend on the gravitational pull from planet n, but i would venture that the rope would remain stationary at planet n (if in fact one could stretch the rope from N to M) due to the fact that the slack would be coming from m and that there would be no movemnt from n's side unitl after the slack from m reached n.

Answer 6

You forgot about John Stuart Bell's theorem...it's known as molecular bifurcation.

Answer 7

There are recent reports of light having been found to travel at velocity 200 times that of light. This is expected to have an impact on the Relativity Theory, according to these observers. The Relativity Theory is, of course, not correct. But this is on account of its being incompatible in the field of Thermodynamics, where the Heat energies are computed to be less when
the energies are motion where as other energies increase under the same conditions. This aspect has been discussed in the companion article “Heat in Gravity”. The Relativity also cannot be valid in the light of the concepts held by ancient Indian astronomers, who considered that the space had two aspects one “zero” and the second “other than zero”. The word
used for the second aspect, in Sanskrit is “itara” space, when the word “itara” got corrupted into Ether and was considered as a substance instead of an aspect of space. There is actually nothing radically wrong with Relativity, except for a very minor error in semantic interpretation of the statements made in it. This will be examined later.

The main issue here the velocity of light as understood by Maxwell, light interpreted as the photon by Max Plank from the properties of the black body radiation. This black body radiation has all the properties of matter, as conclusively proved by Stephen-Boltzman. This indicated that the matter consisted of photons and its properties in the appearance as d’Broglie
waves were already implicit in these earlier observations. When more was understood of the matter waves the difference between the phase velocity and the group velocity became explicit. One is the reciprocal of the other multiplied by square of velocity of light. That is when an electron travels with a velocity of one centimeter per second the phase velocity of its d’Broglie waves travel at a velocity about 9x1020 or 3x1010 times
the velocity of light. The number 200 is but a tiny fraction of it. These clear fundamental insights into the realities of the laws of universe were compromised due to the idee fixe that the Relativity proponents had with the “affine connection”, coupled with the wrong semantic interpretation of the basic statements.
In Maxwell’s equations the “affine connection” evaluates, identically, to zero. The “affine connection” is, of course, totally irrelevant to the gravity phenomenon. The only reason for its existence is the simplification it makes in the Riemann’s curvature tensor formulation, as an intermediate parameter. Solely on account of the disappearance of this irrelevant parameter, Maxwell’s theory of light was no longer considered as a basic law of nature. The result was that no one tried to re-formulate his equations to embrace the d’Broglie waves. This permitted some persons like Shroedinger to consider d’Broglie waves as a scalar wave phenomena. Their success in the construction of weapons of mass destruction, like Atom Bomb, in the eyes of general public confirmed their “validity”. According to the basic Indian concepts of reality, there is always this difference of truth between what enables one to make money and the laws of reality. Dirac put his bit in, but nobody really believed him nor does anyone mentions his name these days.
The Maxwell’s equations can be extended to cover d’Broglie ves by addition of a single term in the equation relating the magnetic flux with electric field, the only two electric field variables that can be directly observed and are, therefore, the basic law of nature. The relation between the electric flux and magnetic field are secondary ones and their interpretation depends on how one interprets the permeability and the dielectric constant of space. When one multiplies the two, extracts the square root of the t and takes its reciprocal, then it is the valocity of light. Due
to symmetry between the electric and magnetic phenomena, in CGS units
the two are always identical in value in space. In MKSI units they are
artificially made of different value, but their ratio will always remain
unchanged every where in space.
Suddenly, if for some reason such as gravity, the dimensions of all matter
bodies were to increase two fold, any measurement will reveal that this
increases the value of the electric field two fold and the value of flux
fourfold. The permeability would then become twice in value and so would
the dielectric constant. By Maxwell’s law the velocity of light would reduce
by a factor half. But this is only the half truth. Since the matter has
acquired twice the dimensions. The value of the velocity being half only
means that it is unchanged. On the other hand if it were to evaluate to the
same value, this means that it has actually doubled in value. The present
practice of treating the values of permeability and dielectric constant with
a change in the frame of reference is to bring the value computed from the
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Maxwell’s equations to the same number, irrespective of what it may
actually be. It is obvious that one may write a theory about it, when it
would only mean that it is the mathematical practice that is being projected
as a law of nature. This is exactly what has happened in the case of
Relativity.
The statement that the velocity of light “is” constant has two semantic
interpretations. One is that with the methods used by physicists supported
by the mathematics that they use, the velocity of light will always evaluate
to come to the same number, irrespective to what it actually is. The
methods used by the physicists are to use the standard of length determined
by the dimensions taken by the matter and the time determined by
the rate of movement of the clocks, also made out of matter. The fact that
they have no other choice than to use instrumrnts made of matter to measure
the velocity of light is no excuse. Since the matter is made of photons,
even a dumb idiot can tell that if any thing is compared with itself
the result will always be the same. If one has to have any hopes of getting
at the truth it is necessary to abandon the present interpretation that the
velocity is actually the same. One has to start with the concept that both
the size of the matter as well as the rate of the clock movement are different,
when compared to some absolute standard. One can then to proceed
to find out the manner in which they change and try to get at the possible
universal standard.
Although this is the shortcoming of Relativity, the present experiments
would not alter the situation in any way. Irrespective of what the velocity
of light actually is, the experiments will always try to indicate that they
are exactly, say, 200 times that. So this is a different phenomena, with
nothing to do with Relativity. This phenomena is actually an illusion
created by the apparent phase velocities of d’Broglie waves. In a way this
has already been modeled in the power transmission lines, when it was
the practice to introduce the series capacitors in the lines to improve the
stability. This has been stopped because it played havoc with the shafts of
the steam alternators. But when it is in use the series capacitor advances
the phase angle of the transmitted wave as against the inductance that
retards it. Here the velocity of light is, as with the permeability and dielectric
constant, the reciprocal of the square root of the product of the
series inductance and the shunt capacitance of the transmission line. Since
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the series inductance is reduced when capacitance is placed in series with
it, the phase angle difference between the electric wave at the sending end
and the receiving end is reduced. This improves the stability of the system.
This is also a measure of the fact that the velocity of wave propagation
has increased to several times that of light.
The term that is added to the Maxwell’s equation is identical with the
series capacitance. It is only then that the equations produce the d’Broglie
waves. But there is a catch in it. As in case of light velocity in glass, the
transmission lines as well as the d’Broglie waves have a resonance frequency.
On the one side of it the velocity is higher than that of the fundamental
photon and on the other side it is less. The phase velocity is not,
unlike that of the free photon, the same at all the frequencies. The conclusion
is obvious. The velocity of photon is unchanged, it is only the phase
angle at which it appears at the different points that is changed, which
gives an illusion of travelling at velocities higher than that of photon. If
the observers do not claim to have violated the “Uncertainty Princiole”
then they have neither observed the frequency of the photons nor the
exact time of their appearance. All that, then, remains to be said is that
they might have observed the phase angle difference of the photons, which
as discussed above may be advanced or retarded without any deviation in
the already known knowledge of the phenomena of electric transmission.
So it is clear from the above discussion that these observations of the
experiments do not have any material impact on the Relativity Theory.
This is an altogether different phenomenon. And not just 200 times the
velocity of light, it could even be several million.

Answer 8

nice question man.. But give us a bigger clue than that........