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Steve
Lv 4
Steve asked in Science & MathematicsAstronomy & Space · 8 years ago

stupid question about the speed of light?

If you would allow me to propose a little thought experiment ...

As I understand it, the universe is expanding and as such, other suns, galaxies, etc are moving away from us in all directions. Some of them are almost about to pass what is the edge of the visible universe. IE the space between is expanding at such a rate that eventually the space between us will grow so fast that light will not travel fast enough to ever reach us.

Now suppose we imagine some inelastic tether fastened to one of these distant objects *just about to pass the visible edge on one end and on the other, here on earth, it is fastened to ... anything. Say a baseball. How fast would the baseball be moving as the distant object to which it is tethered passes beyond the edge of the visible universe?

Sorry if its not a very well formed question. I'm banging out on my phone here.

Update:

I suppose the tethered ball would need to be somewhere further out than earth but along a path which would nearly converge with earths so that it could be observed ( or not) at some point after the object to which it is tethered passes the visible edge. Does that make any sense? I wish I could draw something here.

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  • ?
    Lv 7
    8 years ago

    <suppose we imagine some inelastic tether>

    we can imagine it, but it does not exist ...

    Have you ever heard of the Irresistible Force meeting the Immovable Body.

    Something has to give.

    In your case the unbreakable tether would break.

    And in any case it is not proved that distant parts of the universe are moving away faster than light.

  • DrDave
    Lv 7
    8 years ago

    All that is fine and well up until the part where matter travels faster than the speed of light. Since nothing can travel faster, I guess that blows your theory out of the water.

  • llloki00001
    Lv 5
    8 years ago

    the universe is expanding but not faster than light

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