Wait, so you are saying we would feel the effects immediately, but the light would not disappear for eight minutes?
So let's assume once can cause the sun to vanish instantly somehow. If that's the case, would it then be possible to setup a 'gravitational wave' communication system that travels faster than light?
Ie, I would put a whole bunch of stars together, and then have them disappear at certain intervals. My buddy who sits 100 light-minutes away would then detect the changes and decode the message. TADA: Faster-than-light communication.
No, the sun disappearing would not be constant velocity or constant acceleration motion, so the info would indeed only propagate at the speed of light.
Comments
Wait, so you are saying we would feel the effects immediately, but the light would not disappear for eight minutes?
So let's assume once can cause the sun to vanish instantly somehow. If that's the case, would it then be possible to setup a 'gravitational wave' communication system that travels faster than light?
Ie, I would put a whole bunch of stars together, and then have them disappear at certain intervals. My buddy who sits 100 light-minutes away would then detect the changes and decode the message. TADA: Faster-than-light communication.
I feel safe to say that's not possible.
No, the sun disappearing would not be constant velocity or constant acceleration motion, so the info would indeed only propagate at the speed of light.
Out of curiosity, why do you think this is not possible?
You can't transmit data faster than the speed of light.
http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1122131/?ln=cs
So far as we currently know, classical information (aka bits) cannot be transferred via quantum entanglement (aka spooky action at a distance.)
I love the names they give to things nowadays. In this case, specifically "Spooky action"
I think that when it comes to the term "spooky action", "nowadays" would be around the time Einstein was working on all of this.