Physicists Are Looking At How We Might Take A Trip Through Time

Wall Street Journal ^ | 21 November 2003 | SHARON BEGLEY

[PatrickHenry]

Ronald Mallett hadn't even heard of physics when he read H.G. Wells' 1895 classic, "The Time Machine," just a few months after his father died at age 33.

The 10-year old assumed that to build such a device, and see his father again, he should go into electronics, his dad's field. It was only during his stint at the Strategic Air Command that he learned that it was physicists who were discovering seeming impossibilities: that space can bend, time can slow, particles can be waves and waves, particles. It was physics, he realized, that offered the hope of making Wells' fiction -- and his boyhood hope -- a reality.

[xrp]

Helm, warp set a course for Earth, maximum warp.

[USF]

I've been on something very close to a time machine... It took me all the way back to a 7th century religious freakdom. You can try out this mode of transport too. Just book here.

[Dog Gone]

That's how the heroes of "Timeline," in theaters next week, travel back to the 14th century (and immediately plunge into nonstop sword-wielding, horse-galloping mayhem).

Quantum foam
Take me home...

[KellyAdmirer]

The energy needed to prop open a wormhole is about what you would get by converting the mass of a large star into energy through E = mc2.

Ok, somebody power up Mr. Fusion and start the Delorean, let's go.

[SamAdams76]

Bump for earlier reading.

[GreenHornet]

I have to go back to 1960, maybe I could warn JFK while I was there, eh.

Several years ago, I saw a TV movie based on this premise starring Robert Hays (probably best known as "Ted Stryker" in the movie "Airplane!"). Hays and a woman companion traveled back to Nov. 22, 1963, in an attempt to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy. If I remember correctly, they ended up going back 2 or 3 times. They kept going back to that day, because each time, the results of their interference set in motion events which were even more catastrophic then the original scenario. I missed the beginning, and never did find out the title of the movie. Has anyone else seen this film?

[Condorman]

You are correct. However, in Thorne's book, he deals with a variation of the "what if I travel to the past before I was born and kill my own grandfather" paradox.

The question he poses is this: What happens if you shoot a marble into a wormhole in such a way that it exits the other end in the past with a tragectory such that it prevents itself from ever entering the wormhole to begin with?

I'd go look up the resolution, but I have a cat sleeping on my legs and I sorta hate to disturb him. He's been sleeping all day and he's kinda worn out from it.

From memory, I think the math somehow prevents wormholes from being used in such a fashion.

[KellyAdmirer]

Running Against Time (1990).

[blam]

"Has anyone else seen this film?"

No but, Nov. 22 is my birthday, lol.

[Condorman]

Dude, while you're at it you might as well post a link.

Sheesh!

Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

Time travel is a Democrat monopoly.....

after all......

a certain Senator can recognize Neanderthals.

[GreenHornet]

Thanks!

[umgud]

How can I go back in time and NOT marry my ex wife, but keep my four kids?

[PatrickHenry]

What happens if you shoot a marble into a wormhole in such a way that it exits the other end in the past with a tragectory such that it prevents itself from ever entering the wormhole to begin with?

These paradoxes are easy to devise. Let's say you're the inventor of the wormhole. You set up to it goes to tomorrow. As you flip the switch, you receive a marble, which you plan to send back to yourself tomorrow. And you destroy it! Tomorrow, you don't have that marble to send back to yesterday. Now what?

[sirchtruth]

CYGNUS X-1

[Willie Green]

I already have my own wayback machine,

Time Has Come Today
(W. Chambers/J.Chambers)

Time has come today
Young hearts can go their way
Can't put it off another day
And I don't care what the others say
'Cause they say we don't listen anyway
Time has come today, Hey!

The rules have changed today, Hey!
I have no place to stay, Hey!
And I'm thinkin' about the subway, Hey!
Love has gone away, Hey!
And tears have come and gone, Hey!
Oh my God, I have to run, Hey!
I have no home, Hey!
I have no home, Hey!

Now the time has come, Time!
There's no place to run, Time!
Might get burned up by the sun, Time!
Well, I've had my fun, Time!
Well, I've been loved and put aside, Time!
And I've been crushed by tumblin' tide, Time!
And my soul's be psychedelicized, Time!

Now the time has come, Time!
There are things to realize, Time!
Time has come today, Time!
Time has come today, Time!

Time!

Now the time has come, Time!
There are things to realize, Time!
Time has come today, Time!
Time has come today, Time!

Time!

Now the time has come, Time!
Time has come today, Time!
Time has come today, Yeah!

[Condorman]

Now what?

Perhaps you should keep better track of your marbles, my friend...

[Citizen Tom Paine]

For your thoughtful consideration: If time travel does exist, then they are among us.

[Senator Pardek]

Time! Time! Time!