On Oct 15, 9:03 pm, Big Dog <big.fing....@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 10/13/2012 7:00 AM, Vilas Tamhane wrote:

...

> Imagining a pole that violates the laws of physics is a pointless exercise.
> It's like asking what Newtonian physics would predict if momentum
> conservation were not conserved.
> 
> There CAN BE no material in the future for which the signal propagation
> travels faster than the speed of sound.

Compression phenomenon will occur as follows,
Atom at the front end of the pole is suddenly stopped.
Atom behind it will continue to move till inertial force is countered
by electrostatic force.
Similar fate awaits the next preceding atom.
Thus the information is reached the back end at a velocity of the rod.
However after the compression of the first two atoms takes place they
will try to expand and this information will travel back at a speed
that will depend on the elasticity of the pole. So the speed of
information will depend also on velocity of the pole and whichever is
greater will predominate.