It can look dumb, but I always had this question as a kid, what physical principles would prevent this?

  • BradleyUffner@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    11 days ago

    The motion of the stick will actually only propagate to the other end at the speed of sound in the material the stick is made of.

    • PieMePlenty@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      10 days ago

      So when you pull on the stick and it doesnt immediately get pulled back on the other side, you are, at that instant, creating more stick?

      • LouNeko@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        10 days ago

        You know what’s more crazy. Electrons don’t flow at the speed of light through a wire. Current is like Newtons Cradle, you push one electron in on one side and another bounces out on the other side, that happens at almost light speed. But individual electrons only travel at roughly 1cm per second trough a wire.

      • eronth@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        10 days ago

        You are slightly and temporarily increasing the spacing between atoms/compounds in the stick. This spacing will effectively travel like a shockwave of “pull” down the stick.