What a Googol-to-One Gear Ratio Looks Like

kottke.org

34 pointssimonpure4 comments

Now, drive it from the other end. I want to see the end nearest the camera exceed the speed of light.

One would have to apply relativistic corrections in order to properly calculate the speed at the other end.

Realistically, though, the limiting factor in that gear system is the strength of the gear teeth. Something would break before one end moved at light-speed, or before the other end lifted the planet Jupiter.

Hehe, that would be a nice question for https://what-if.xkcd.com/. (Actually maybe not, but it made me think of that, a whole bunch of weird question that have even weirder answers)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22507809

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