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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: billorites
Presumably to count the Florida ballots "one more time."

ROFLMAO!

21 posted on 03/22/2004 4:36:59 PM PST by Fiddlstix (This Space Available for Rent or Lease by the Day, Week, or Month. Reasonable Rates. Inquire within.)
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To: 19th LA Inf
This is "time dilation", which has been well documented in relativity studies.

Everyone who's ever flown in an airplane has aged however imperceptably more slowly from being that much further from the local gravitational source, i.e., the earth.

I suspect though that "changing" time would require a corresponding change in the entropy of the entire universe, since that is what most likely sets the "arrow of time".

22 posted on 03/22/2004 4:37:31 PM PST by onedoug
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To: Williams
You are correct. At best, this is another version of the Hafele and Keating Experiment.
23 posted on 03/22/2004 4:38:00 PM PST by PatrickHenry (Everything good that I have done, I have done at the command of my voices.)
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To: Pukin Dog
I'd hate to see a tear in the space-time continuum, and then have to depend on "Q" to bail us out.
24 posted on 03/22/2004 4:38:27 PM PST by My2Cents ("Well...there you go again.")
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To: My2Cents
Okay, now I'm getting a rundown on Q from the neighbor kid, here to help me build a new computer. I guess I need to get the DVD now.
25 posted on 03/22/2004 4:41:30 PM PST by Pukin Dog (Sans Reproache)
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To: Sabertooth

26 posted on 03/22/2004 4:46:07 PM PST by MeekOneGOP (The Democrats say they believe in CHOICE. I have chosen to vote STRAIGHT TICKET GOP for years !!)
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To: 19th LA Inf
speed up the frequency of the pulses, or ticks, produced by the clock

Whoa! Is this correct? Wouldn't the clock slow down if anything? And then consider that the radial acceleration would be cyclical and cancel itself out. Only the initial tangential acceleration would count. For this to work, the clock would have to be accelerated to a tangential velocity and stay there. How fast will the clock be moving in the centrifuge? I would estimate no more than 700 mph due to sonic shock. They would have to spin it for a year to see anything, and even then it would be only a fraction of a second.

27 posted on 03/22/2004 4:46:11 PM PST by RightWhale (Theorems link concepts; proofs establish links)
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To: Grut
Publicity stunt yes, junk science no... I'm no scientist, but I know a few things of which this experiment consists. The only real problem with the set up is the G forces the digital time piece will be placed under. It may be that the gravitational forces exerted on the timer as it spinns may have an adverse affect on the overall experiment.
28 posted on 03/22/2004 4:47:26 PM PST by Godfollow
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To: Momaw Nadon
It'll never work - he doesn't mention the key piece of equipment - the Flux Capacitor, which makes time travel posssible.
29 posted on 03/22/2004 4:49:44 PM PST by The Sons of Liberty
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To: Momaw Nadon
The experiment involves putting a digital clock under immense force by spinning it on a centrifuge.

Dolz said it takes about six hours to move the clock ahead four seconds.


kAcknor Sez:

I could have saved them all a lot of time and money for the centrifuge. The clock in my computer can gain those 4 seconds in about an hour!  ;)

Political Commentary @ Phillabuster.org, Home of Newslinks! "bISovbejbe'DI' tImer" (When in doubt, surprise them.)

Have you checked the *bang_list today?
Get your daily dose of Newslinks!

30 posted on 03/22/2004 4:52:10 PM PST by kAcknor
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To: Momaw Nadon
I have already won zillions of dollars on my state's lottery. I simply call my friend Shaggy Eel in NZ, who is 18 hours ahead of me and ask him what the lottery numbers are for tonight.
31 posted on 03/22/2004 4:52:12 PM PST by Hot Tabasco (ui)
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To: Williams
Franklin, Faraday

He might have their flair for demonstration, but it is pointless if the demonstration doesn't work.

32 posted on 03/22/2004 4:53:21 PM PST by RightWhale (Theorems link concepts; proofs establish links)
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To: Grut
You said that tomorrow...
33 posted on 03/22/2004 4:55:20 PM PST by baltodog ("Never feel sorry for a man who owns his own plane.")
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To: All
The experiment involves putting a digital clock under immense force by spinning it on a centrifuge.

He must be thinking of the H.G. Wells device:


34 posted on 03/22/2004 4:56:23 PM PST by PatrickHenry (Everything good that I have done, I have done at the command of my voices.)
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To: PatrickHenry
You might be right. What does that spinning disk on the back of the sled do?
35 posted on 03/22/2004 4:57:59 PM PST by RightWhale (Theorems link concepts; proofs establish links)
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To: Momaw Nadon
Maybe, with enough time stretch, the Wright Brothers will get their aeroplane to fly! Just think of it ---- a flying machine! What next --- a horseless carriage?
36 posted on 03/22/2004 4:59:27 PM PST by Joee
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To: Godfollow
So, just curious, how do you explain the discrepancies that have been mentioned, the ones I most agree with being that time should slow down, not speed up? As for the motion being circular "cancelling itself out", I'm not sure that's necessarily accurate... by that logic, the famous anecdote of orbitting the planet a few times near the speed of light to produce the time effect should cancel itself out too. Besides, if it could "cancel itself out", that would imply that you could use the time shift to both speed up and slow down time, a positive and a negative... and that doesn't jibe with my understanding either.

Qwinn
37 posted on 03/22/2004 5:00:28 PM PST by Qwinn
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To: Howlin; Ed_NYC; MonroeDNA; widgysoft; Springman; Timesink; dubyaismypresident; Grani; coug97; ...

Just damn.

If you want on the list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

38 posted on 03/22/2004 5:01:42 PM PST by mhking (The UN was supposed to be the last, best hope for peace...it failed.)
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To: PatrickHenry
That movie was on AMC or TCM this past weekend. Love that Yvette Mimeaux! Now that was a 60s kinda girl. What three books would take back to the Eloie future?

"The Nutty Professor" was on as well. Jerry Lewis rocks in that flick!

39 posted on 03/22/2004 5:03:41 PM PST by Young Werther
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To: unix
Thanks.
40 posted on 03/22/2004 5:03:43 PM PST by Quix (Choose this day whom U will serve: Shrillery & demonic goons or The King of Kings and Lord of Lords)
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