Posted on 04/28/2017 1:16:00 PM PDT by Red Badger
UBC math and physics instructor, Ben Tippett. Credit: UBC Okanagan
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After some serious number crunching, a UBC researcher has come up with a mathematical model for a viable time machine.
Ben Tippett, a mathematics and physics instructor at UBC's Okanagan campus, recently published a study about the feasibility of time travel. Tippett, whose field of expertise is Einstein's theory of general relativity, studies black holes and science fiction when he's not teaching. Using math and physics, he has created a formula that describes a method for time travel.
"People think of time travel as something as fiction," says Tippett. "And we tend to think it's not possible because we don't actually do it. But, mathematically, it is possible."
Ever since HG Wells published his book Time Machine in 1885, people have been curious about time traveland scientists have worked to solve or disprove the theory, he says. In 1915 Albert Einstein announced his theory of general relativity, stating that gravitational fields are caused by distortions in the fabric of space and time. More than 100 years later, the LIGO Scientific Collaborationan international team of physics institutes and research groupsannounced the detection of gravitational waves generated by colliding black holes billions of lightyears away, confirming Einstein's theory.
The division of space into three dimensions, with time in a separate dimension by itself, is incorrect, says Tippett. The four dimensions should be imagined simultaneously, where different directions are connected, as a space-time continuum. Using Einstein's theory, Tippett says that the curvature of space-time accounts for the curved orbits of the planets.
In "flat"or uncurvedspace-time, planets and stars would move in straight lines. In the vicinity of a massive star, space-time geometry becomes curved and the straight trajectories of nearby planets will follow the curvature and bend around star.
"The time direction of the space-time surface also shows curvature. There is evidence showing the closer to a black hole we get, time moves slower," says Tippett. "My model of a time machine uses the curved space-timeto bend time into a circle for the passengers, not in a straight line. That circle takes us back in time."
While it is possible to describe this type of time travel using a mathematical equation, Tippett doubts that anyone will ever build a machine to make it work.
"HG Wells popularized the term 'time machine' and he left people with the thought that an explorer would need a 'machine or special box' to actually accomplish time travel," Tippett says. "While is it mathematically feasible, it is not yet possible to build a space-time machine because we need materialswhich we call exotic matterto bend space-time in these impossible ways, but they have yet to be discovered."
For his research, Tippett created a mathematical model of a Traversable Acausal Retrograde Domain in Space-time (TARDIS). He describes it as a bubble of space-time geometry which carries its contents backward and forwards through space and time as it tours a large circular path. The bubble moves through space-time at speeds greater than the speed of light at times, allowing it to move backward in time.
"Studying space-time is both fascinating and problematic. And it's also a fun way to use math and physics," says Tippett. "Experts in my field have been exploring the possibility of mathematical time machines since 1949. And my research presents a new method for doing it."
Tippett's research was recently published in the IOPscience journal Classical and Quantum Gravity.
Explore further: How Einstein could help unlock the mysteries of space travel
More information: Benjamin K Tippett et al. Traversable acausal retrograde domains in spacetime, Classical and Quantum Gravity (2017). DOI: 10.1088/1361-6382/aa6549
Reminds me of a guy we gave a second chance to at a church....made him an associate pastor.
Great to your face; behind your back....
Otherwise someone from the future would have traveled back to Germany in the 1930s and killed Hitler.
Baah. Want to slow down time? Cultivate a feeling
of boredom! Want to speed it up? Get excited.
To know contentment is to be rich.
Bill Clinton was interested in paradox
until he found out it wasn’t a pair of doxies.
TARDIS Express - When it absolutely, positively has to get there yesterday !
We all travel in time.
L
Yes. That was my ultimate point, although I didn't state it directly.
Actually I just wanted to use the word “T’were.”
From what I have read/understand, Time Travel would only be possible to the point of the initial singularity. IE, you could travel forward and then back to the point you started, but never back prior to the point.
What do we want? TIME TRAVEL
When do we want it? IT DOESN’T MATTER
I’ve long thought that one would have to rearrange the structure of the entire universe, since it appears to be expanding.
One would have to restore it to an earlier epoch to visit the past, or extend it beyond its “current” volume to go into the future.
From those aspects, it would seem impossible.
But then there’s quantum entanglement, which seems even weirder.
One of my favorite movies.
I wouldn’t mind going back to 1960.
My Grandmother bought her brand new Pontiac Ventura; black two-door hardtop. Hot engine (389, 4bbl, dual exhausts), etc.
The whole family loved it!
Oops... Back to 2017.
HEY!!! Where are all the Pontiacs???
Oh that I were where I would be!
Then would I be where I am not;
But where I am there I must be,
And where I would be I can not.
And state change ALWAYS goes, relatively, FORWARD.
It is fiction, not fact. Only God is outside of the cause/effect continuum. The rest of us are forever stuck in it, and cannot escape it. Effect follows cause and there is no way for us to change it.
Simple as that.
Well, I didn't want to mention it before, but now that you have confessed, I should tell you that you didn't quite structure the sentence properly when you posted "T'were it possible, that would have already happened."
It should have been: "If 't were possible, that would have already happened." Or even better: "If 't were possible, 't would have already happened."
But still, I do most sincerely appreciate your effort to class up the place.
(Signed) Maceman (Grammar Nazi Badge # 42817)
For I am a holder of the "As Long As It Sounds Good"
Linguistic Permit (Lifetyme) granted to me in 1973
by Dr. Edward Cronin PhD (Emeritus) and inscribed thusly -
The more obscurically to great you with, Sod's Brood!
KillyKillKilly, a Toll, a Toll.
Tsk. Not one single mention of the Delorean. Now THAT was a cool time machine.
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