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Test could lead to time travel
The Miami Herald ^ | Sunday, March 21, 2004 | BY RAFAEL SANGIOVANNI

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.''


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; Technical; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: acceleration; carlosdolz; centrifuge; clock; crevolist; dolz; einstein; experiment; force; gravity; physics; pseudoscience; relativity; science; shift; speed; test; time; timeshiftexperiment; timetravel; travel
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To: onedoug
Yup, that's right. These experiments have been done before with airplanes, but the shifts forward were extremely tiny. The were only measurable with cesium clocks, down to billionths of a second, I think.
101 posted on 03/22/2004 8:09:29 PM PST by July 4th (You need to click "Abstimmen")
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To: Williams
Well, travel at high velocity will cause a clock (or anything else for that matter) to SLOW a bit, relative to a stationary observer. Unless his centrifuge is causing the digital clock to move fast enough to account for this four second differential, then it isn't being legitimately accomplished. I find his refereces to his experiments and others to be sloppy.

What he SEEMS to be proposing would require a NEGATIVE velocity to get the results he is expecting! It may be that we have an ignorant reporter completely goobering this whole experiment up. Perhaps Volz said 4 PICO (one-trillionth) or FEMPTO (1E-15) seconds and the reporter didn't know what that meant.

102 posted on 03/22/2004 8:14:04 PM PST by Swordmaker (This tagline shut down for renovations and repairs. Re-open June of 2001.)
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To: Momaw Nadon
Possibly. I would be much more concerned about the clock mechanism if it was mechanical.

Well, I would think if he was going to get validity for his test, he would have to eliminate any question there. I didn't see any attempt to address it in the article, and it was the first thing that occured to me.

103 posted on 03/22/2004 8:20:20 PM PST by William Terrell (Individuals can exist without government but government can't exist without individuals.)
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To: Focault's Pendulum
If you're correct it would take Michael Jackson aprroximately 300 years to get his original nose back.

NAH! That's already gone... they tossed it out with the other bio-hazard waste!

104 posted on 03/22/2004 8:21:52 PM PST by Swordmaker (This tagline shut down for renovations and repairs. Re-open June of 2001.)
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To: Victoria Delsoul
Dolz, who has been a lecturing theoretical physicist for nine years, really doesn't know where his experiment could lead.

How could we have missed this?!

Dolz = DOLTS

105 posted on 03/22/2004 8:27:04 PM PST by Swordmaker (This tagline shut down for renovations and repairs. Re-open June of 2001.)
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To: shaggy eel
I bet his next experiment will involve trapping four seconds in a jar.

Didn't Jim Croce already do that?

106 posted on 03/22/2004 8:27:53 PM PST by Doctor Stochastic (Vegetabilisch = chaotisch is der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)
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To: Doctor Stochastic
,,, no, he sang about it and four seconds wouldn't have made a lot of difference for him with his final exit.
107 posted on 03/22/2004 8:34:53 PM PST by shaggy eel
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To: Pukin Dog
Don't you have to do that at the same time
you are slingshotting around a planet??
108 posted on 03/22/2004 8:34:54 PM PST by Politicalmom
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To: Momaw Nadon
May I suggest "By His Bootstraps" by Anson MacDonald.
109 posted on 03/22/2004 8:35:17 PM PST by Doctor Stochastic (Vegetabilisch = chaotisch is der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)
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To: The Sons of Liberty
(Runs off to Google and see if there have been any mysterious plutonium disappearances.....)
110 posted on 03/22/2004 8:36:18 PM PST by Politicalmom
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To: Momaw Nadon; Sabertooth; Williams; OneTime; PatrickHenry; RightWhale; Qwinn; SamAdams76; tpaine; ...
Dolz claims to be a "phycisist" yet his grasp of physics seems a little loose. He also claims to be a "Professor" at Florida International University.

A Google Search for "Carlos Dolz" produces one Carlos Dolz, professor of Medicine in Spain, a Carlos Dolz who teaches Juggling in Los Angeles, and three repeats of the article from the Miami Herald we have before us.

A search of the Florida International University website fails to come up with a Carlos Dolz as a faculty member. The following is a link to the listing of the faculty and staff of the Department of Physics at FIU.> FIU Department of Physics Faculty and Staff

Guess what? No Carlos Dolz.

Methinks the Miami Herald, and perhaps the museum have been hoodwinked or hoaxed!

111 posted on 03/22/2004 9:11:01 PM PST by Swordmaker (This tagline shut down for renovations and repairs. Re-open June of 2001.)
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To: Doctor Stochastic
May I suggest "By His Bootstraps" by Anson MacDonald.

Might be easier to find under Robert A. Heinlein... but his "All You Zombies" is the best time travel paradox tale ever told.

112 posted on 03/22/2004 9:12:50 PM PST by Swordmaker (This tagline shut down for renovations and repairs. Re-open June of 2001.)
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To: Grut
"Publicity stunt and junk science."

Yes.

Time travel into the future is certainly possible; we all do it--at a rate of one second per second.

Time travel into the past is almost certainly impossible, at least in practice.

A centrifuge? Please.

--Boris

113 posted on 03/22/2004 9:14:58 PM PST by boris (The deadliest Weapon of Mass Destruction in History is a Leftist With a Word Processor)
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To: Swordmaker
Dolz = DOLTS

Hmmm, considering that his first Name is Carlos which means "man" we have, Man Dolts or Dolts Man, whatever, lol

114 posted on 03/22/2004 9:48:30 PM PST by Victoria Delsoul (Kerry's 3 Purple Hearts are: 2 for minor arm and thigh injury and 1 for killing a semi-dead VietCong)
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To: Victoria Delsoul
The implications of this experiment are truly Earth shattering.

This could lead to Cubans actually being on time for stuff!
115 posted on 03/22/2004 9:52:10 PM PST by Luis Gonzalez (Unless the world is made safe for Democracy, Democracy won't be safe in the world.)
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To: Luis Gonzalez
LOL, right on time.
116 posted on 03/22/2004 9:54:11 PM PST by Victoria Delsoul (Kerry's 3 Purple Hearts are: 2 for minor arm and thigh injury and 1 for killing a semi-dead VietCong)
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To: Momaw Nadon
FYI and discussion

The experiment involves putting a digital clock under immense force by spinning it on a centrifuge.

Timex ®, it takes a licking and keeps on ticking. -- John Cameron Swayze.

117 posted on 03/22/2004 10:03:27 PM PST by AndrewC (I am a Bertrand Russell agnostic, even an atheist.</sarcasm>)
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To: Momaw Nadon
Clearly stated.

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.

Digital clocks basically devide and count freqencys produced by crystal osciallators. Sounds like stressing the crystal could increase it's frequency. Could you build a crystal 'strain' guage?

This is clearly not a relativistic effect. It's far too large.

Sadly the original english is cryptic. No doubt the reporters understanding was also less then complete.

118 posted on 03/22/2004 10:07:57 PM PST by Dinsdale
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To: Swordmaker
Very interesting. Searching the FIU phonebook turns up no listing either...
119 posted on 03/23/2004 5:27:13 AM PST by general_re (The doors to Heaven and Hell are adjacent and identical... - Nikos Kazantzakis)
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To: PatrickHenry; SamAdams76
I've always considered the possibility that there is no future time to travel to as it has not yet taken place. In other words, time travel would be limited to the past and the present. In other other words, we exist on the boundary of the time line. If we invented a time machine we could travel back in time to any point in history. If we left on a Saturday and stayed exactly one week, we could return Sunday a week later -- but not beyond. What lies beyond our present? Nothing.

120 posted on 03/23/2004 5:40:24 AM PST by Lee'sGhost (Crom!)
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