Posted on 03/22/2004 4:20:21 PM PST by Momaw Nadon
A physics professor will try to turn back time in an experiment at the Miami Museum of Science.
It's back to the future all over again -- at least, that's what Carlos Dolz has in mind.
The Florida International University physics professor plans to take time to task at 10 a.m. Wednesday, when he presents an experiment that involves using acceleration to speed up a digital clock by four seconds.
Dolz's experiment -- which takes six hours to finish -- will become part of Playing With Time, the current exhibit at the Miami Museum of Science.
Dolz, who has been a lecturing theoretical physicist for nine years, really doesn't know where his experiment could lead.
''The point of this is to question how things really work,'' he said. ``This goes beyond common understanding.''
The aptly titled ''Time Shift Experiment'' combines some of the most complicated physics concepts with simple machines and -- Dolz said -- may prove that time travel is possible.
Time shifts are not uncommon, the professor said. There have been experiments in the past that compared atomic clocks on fast-flying planes to those on the ground. The clocks on board the planes showed a slight shift forward, Dolz said.
He said he became even more fascinated by time when he was studying gravity -- he found that he could not truly understand one without the other.
He began fiddling with time shifts in his experiments and was approached by Museum of Science officials in late 2003.
They had decided to host the time exhibit to pique public interest in the abstract concept of time.
''[Time] is a hands-on phenomenon,'' said Sean Duran, director of exhibits at the Museum of Science. 'This exhibit helps [people] to get some of those `big-picture' questions that were posed by the big guys like Einstein.''
They wanted Dolz to come aboard with his presentation.
But unlike the other time experiments on display, which are already proven and made for learning, Dolz's is an authentic first-time experiment made for both learning and discovery.
He hopes to stir up the public's preconceptions about time, gravity and acceleration.
''A big problem for science is common sense. It works for most everything in people's lives, but not in physics,'' he said. ``It's limited to point of view and perspective, [so] it's really not enough.''
The experiment involves putting a digital clock under immense force by spinning it on a centrifuge.
The basic idea behind the experiment is to speed up the frequency of the pulses, or ticks, produced by the clock with force to push it ahead.
Dolz said it takes about six hours to move the clock ahead four seconds.
While past experiments were expensive and produced minimal results, Dolz said he is taking an economical approach and shooting for a range of results.
''He can use very simple tools to come to some of the same grand conclusions,'' said Duran, adding that Dolz's experiment could prove Einstein's theory that time is only relative.
Dolz's four-second time shift, when compared to the plane experiments, is considered a huge change -- so much so that scientists from various universities will be monitoring the experiment to certify the results.
Dolz said he is looking forward to sharing his discovery, claiming contending that understanding time helps people in everything they do.
But in the science world, Dolz has no idea what kind of impact his experiment could have -- much like the great scientists of the past.
''Did [Benjamin] Franklin know that his fiddling around would take us where we are today?'' he asks. ``We may be seeing the beginnings of time travel, but I have no idea. I'm like Franklin, Columbus and [Michael] Faraday: we [just] do what we are capable of doing.''
Ah, you've figured it out. We Neanderthals are due to arrive in force rather soon now. I'm part of an advance party, checking out the competition. I see nothing about you sapiens types [snicker] to cause us any trouble.
Everyone's been wondering what happened to us Neanderthals. Now you know. We left the ice age, and now we'll be taking over. MRRUUHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Hmmm, so how does he know how things really work? Just wondering. :-)
Is this guy going to be selling autographs? His own, I mean?
I'm intrigued by your post. I think I'll write the government and see if I can get a grant to study stewardesses.
Mebbe I should have subtracted.
Ah yes, the untestable "many worlds" conjecture. True, we wouldn't be flooded with time travelers, because each would have his own universe. But where would those new universes fit in? This one seems to be hogging all the room.
Or at least 1966 :-)
Now that I re-read that...it doesn't make much sense does it? I guess traveling back in time would have to entail jumping to a parallel universe, because if you jumped around in time, you could run the risk of creating the time/space continuum paradox where "what if I met my parents and somehow prevented my conception, if I am never born, then how can I go back in time and prevent my own conception".
Sure...slingshot around the sun, if you gather enough speed you're in time travel!
"The basic idea behind the experiment is to speed up the frequency of the pulses, or ticks, produced by the clock with force to push it ahead. Dolz said it takes about six hours to move the clock ahead four seconds.
I question this guys total premise and his prediction. He claims that a high-speed centrifuge with a digital clock mounted at the perimeter will GAIN (!) FOUR SECONDS in about SIX HOURS????
First of all, the high velocity clock should show a LOSS of time not a GAIN! It would be the stationary clock that would appear to have gained time compared to the moving clock.
Secondly, at the velocities a mechanical centrifuge could attain, I think it would take THOUSANDS, of not MILLIONS, of years to gain even ONE second, let alone FOUR! The atomic clocks carried for long periods of time on satellites or the space shuttle showed only millionths of a second time differences with Earthbound comparison clocks... and they were traveling at 18,000+ miles per hour.
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