I wonder if the clock goes backwards if they spin the centrifuge the other way?
Posted on 03/24/2004 5:09:04 PM PST by vannrox
Professor's experiment could open door to time travel
A physics professor will try to turn back time in an experiment at the Miami Museum of Science.
BY RAFAEL SANGIOVANNI
Herald Writer
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.
No, it won't.
Yes, that's the problem, isn't it? A clock isn't time, it's a mechanical device that measures time. Has your experiment affected time, or just monkeyed with a watchspring?
He was much old then, he's younger than that now.
Thanks a lot -- I spewed drink on my keyboard. Please go back and fix it.
I wonder if the clock goes backwards if they spin the centrifuge the other way?
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