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U. Connecticut professor works on time machine
U-WIRE ^ | 9-28-2001 | Andrew Chemistruck & Courtney Hickson

Posted on 09/28/2001 7:45:28 AM PDT by Cagey

STORRS, Conn. -- A University of Connecticut theoretical physics professor is working on the key to traveling back in time. According to Ronald Mallett, the solution is simpler than traveling through a rotating black hole or an unstable wormhole.

"I have been focused on creating a time machine ever since I was 10 years old, when my father died from a heart attack at the age of 33," Mallett said. "Ever since then, it has been my goal to construct a time machine to go back and warn my father of what is about to happen to him."

Mallett's theory uses laser light that is forced to circulate in one continuous loop by using mirrors or fiber optics. In the center a single spinning particle would be placed, such as a neutron. The particle would be dragged around in empty space and moving it away from the center could send it into the past.

According to Mallett, the device could create an effect that would be similar to stirring cream into a cup of coffee. The disturbance created in the coffee by stirring is similar to the effects created by Mallett's laser device.

"The theory is that when the machine is turned on and runs for a day, a person can step into the machine and return to the day before," Mallett said. "Hence, a person can travel back from the future to any time in the past, but not past before the time machine was turned on."

"[Mallett's theory] is perfectly consistent [with Einstein's Theory of General Relativity], but if someone will be able to do it experimentally is another thing. It could be too hard to do. It could only work in physics or chemistry labs, but not on a life-size level, which is often the case," David Markowitz, a physics professor, said.

"The bottom line is that Mallett has found an exact solution to Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. He and others are trying to understand the consequences of his theory and I am trying to understand it myself," Winthrop Smith, a physics professor, said.

"It is an exciting theoretical development, but I am skeptical about any practical developments in the short run, but this does not mean that we should not work on it," Smith said.

Smith said it could be practical if someone comes up with a clever idea to modify the current design to make it cheaper to develop for experimentation.

According to William Stwalley, the head of the physics department, members of the Ultracold research group have been able to slow light down to the speed of a bike, which could make development of a Mallett device more practical than before.

"No experiments are definitely planned for this year, but I would not be surprised that there would be one by the end of the year," Stwalley said.

Under the currently defined rules of the universe, Mallett cannot travel back in time to save his father. He will continue to search for a way to travel through time, and the physics staff and students at UConn will be controlling the research for this new theory.

"I find all this new work quite exciting," Mallet said. "Being able to alter the past is a powerful tool and there are severe moral implications related to changing the past. I wonder if the people of the future will use time travel to alter their past, our present."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
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To: Attillathehon
Attillathehon? I have a time related question for you. If you could go back to yesterday, would you still yell what you did to X42?
41 posted on 09/28/2001 8:51:45 AM PDT by Cagey (...where did that thread go anyway?)
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To: All
I'm still working on a fully functional lightsabre. Imagine a device that emits positrons on a controlled beam. Everything it touched that was surrounded by electrons (All matter) would sheer away, it would emit no heat until it touched matter, and it wouldn't go through another beam.

Seriously, though. If the rescuers had a few of these at WTC, there might have been more survivors: the wreckage would be cleared faster.

42 posted on 09/28/2001 8:53:19 AM PDT by RandallFlagg
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To: Cagey
Please cagey we need to bestow Clinton(i) with all his honors...x42(i)...the (i) for the distinguished honor of being impeached!
43 posted on 09/28/2001 8:55:23 AM PDT by surfer
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To: aomagrat
If it were possible, someone in the future would have already invented it and come back to mess with us.

Is it possible that the Clinton's really are from the future?

44 posted on 09/28/2001 8:55:49 AM PDT by CubicleGuy
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To: Cagey, hometoroost
ANOTHER STEVEN WRIGHT CLASSIC:

"When I was a fetus, I used to sneak out at night...."

The guy is hilarious!!!

45 posted on 09/28/2001 8:55:53 AM PDT by ServesURight
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To: aomagrat
"Time travel is impossible. If it were possible, someone in the future would have already invented it and come back to mess with us. "

The End of Eternity by Asimov.

46 posted on 09/28/2001 8:56:02 AM PDT by Tymesup
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To: Cagey
Entropic twaddle.
47 posted on 09/28/2001 8:57:08 AM PDT by onedoug
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To: Cagey
I'm always amused by the fact that whenever (seemingly) ANYONE talks about "time travel," it's ALWAYS in the context of travelling backward to the past, and almost NEVER about travelling FORWARD into the future. Never understood that.

I've good a good grip on the past and have no interest in going back. But I'd LOVE to see what the FUTURE holds. Am I the only one?

Michael

48 posted on 09/28/2001 8:57:13 AM PDT by Wright is right!
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To: sawsalimb
"The direction that we travel happens to be forward,and at what we perceive as a fixed rate."

The key here is "perceive" when in fact we know it to be a variable based on speed.

49 posted on 09/28/2001 8:59:03 AM PDT by okie_tech
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To: aomagrat
They have.
50 posted on 09/28/2001 9:01:06 AM PDT by gunshy
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To: neutrino
So let's assume you manage to construct a device capable of sending a brief message back in time. You use it to get race results before the race. You sit at the machine, get your message sent by yourself in the future, bet and collect your winnings. A day passes, it is time to send back the results. Can you choose not to do so? If you can and do, what happens?

Some other nice paradoxs of time travel were written into the Terminator movies.

51 posted on 09/28/2001 9:01:29 AM PDT by Aurelius
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To: Wright is right!
We know how to travel forward in time, just approach the speed of light and your time travel forward will be less than that of the universe at large. The effect is that the world traveled much further in time than you did so voila you have traveled forward in time. We just don't know how you could ever go back.

At least that how it's been explained to me a-la relativity, it all makes my head hurt.

52 posted on 09/28/2001 9:03:16 AM PDT by okie_tech
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To: peteram
That makes as much sense as a a screendoor on a battleship.


Way out..WAY OUT..that's where the fun is Way out...WAY OUT..that's where the fun is WAY OUT!

53 posted on 09/28/2001 9:12:56 AM PDT by Gumption
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To: Cagey
read a similar article some time ago in the Hartford Courant.

Found it, it's a little more in depth.

you can find it at
http://www.ctnow.com/scripts/editorial.dll?render=y&eetype=Article&eeid=4954446&ck=&ver=3.0

54 posted on 09/28/2001 9:13:33 AM PDT by #1CTYankee
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To: doug from upland
When you're done with it, I'm stealing it and going back to 1978 and spending the rest of my life in the back seat of my 59 Cadillac with Suzy Weltzel. :)
55 posted on 09/28/2001 9:14:15 AM PDT by Critter
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To: john316
I can handle respectful disagreement.

Even if a person could travel back in time, if he/she tries to prevent an event, it causes alterations in the "time-line" between that point and the current time from which he/she came from. This creates contradictory situations like this simple example:

Person C goes back in time to prevent event D. In the process, he prevents person A (dad) and person B (mom) from ever meeting and producing person C (time traveler). Therefore, person C never existed to prevent event D.

Perhaps if time was altered so that EVERYONE goes back in time, that would be more plausible. However, it is still science-fiction as "do-overs" do not exist in real life.

If by chance I am wrong, I doubt either of us will be alive to see it, but be sure to look me up and say I was wrong in any reversed timelines.

56 posted on 09/28/2001 9:16:35 AM PDT by PetroniDE
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To: Cagey
Cool. Can I go too?
57 posted on 09/28/2001 9:18:01 AM PDT by OKSooner
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To: Cagey
Yikes !!! Sounds like another area for the letcherous lawyers to expand into !!!
58 posted on 09/28/2001 9:25:56 AM PDT by GeekDejure
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To: babygene
He is selling the device, which looks like a large over stuffed chair, and though there's still work to do, he's offering a free upgrade to the firmware when it is completed.

SIGN ME UP!!!!!!!!!!

I need a good new place to sit...

59 posted on 09/28/2001 9:28:38 AM PDT by phillibuck
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To: PetroniDE
Person C goes back in time to prevent event D. In the process, he prevents person A (dad) and person B (mom) from ever meeting and producing person C (time traveler). Therefore, person C never existed to prevent event D.

As long as you don't go back in time with the idea of being a matchmaker, it'll all be okay!

60 posted on 09/28/2001 9:32:39 AM PDT by phillibuck
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