Saturday, January 28, 2006
I'm too busy to actually design and build a time machine, but I have come up with a more practical approach. I had been thinking about this for a little while, then I saw Superman again recently and it just reaffirmed my idea. It all has to do with the rotation of the Earth and the International Date Line. If you were to go from east to west along the Equator, traveling just fast enough to go around the Earth in 24 hours, once you hit that dateline you're in yesterday. The only problem is that it took you 24 hours, so it's really just today again. But let's speed things up a little bit. Head the same direction, doubling your speed, go around the Earth in just 12 hours. Now you have gotten to yesterday halfway through the day. Ya, you've missed half of the day, but you get a whole extra half a day. And face it, the afternoon and evening is probably what you want to repeat anyways. It is also important to note that if you work your way closer to the North or South Pole, this trek around the Earth will go considerably faster. Of course this can work in reverse as well. Say that you are really looking forward to "Mission Impossible III" like I am. Just get on that plane and head from west to east, before you know it the Summer will be here and Tom Cruise will be kicking some... well I don't want to give anything away, but it's a sweet movie!
2 comments:
Edwardo, I'm not sure if your premise is correct (I am arguing with superman, not a Crum). However, I think a really easy way to achieve time travel is to simply travel at a speed greater than the speed of light. There is a phenomenon where, the closer you get to the speed of light, the slower time gets (according to atomic "earth" time). Thus, someone who is on the ground experiences time going by faster than a person in motion (say, flying around the earth). This can actually be measured with atomic clocks. The idea is that at the speed of light, time stops. Thus the theory continues that upon breaking the speed of light, you would travel backwards in time. Of course, it is also theorized that one cannot actually travel at light speed, your mass would be to great... but that's a detail that I think can be ironed out.
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