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Xaser

Time Travel

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I think I may have figured out a way to travel in time. Since the Earth rotates at a certain speed, and the Earth is divided into 24 time zones, if you were to get in a jet and fly fast enough (in the right direction), then you could, say, leave San Francisco at 2:00 PM and arrive in China at 1:00. If there ever was a jet fast enough, you could fly around the Earth all the way around and arrive back at your starting point at a time earlier than the time you left!!! The main catch is that there are currently no jets fast enough to do this, YET. But, when the time comes, you'll thank me!

If any of this information is wrong, feel free to correct me!

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Wait until I get high. I'm really deep when I'm stoned. Anyway, your theory is not possible. Ever.

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Xaser said:

if you were to get in a jet and fly fast enough (in the right direction), then you could, say, leave San Francisco at 2:00 PM and arrive in China at 1:00.

Yeah, but that would be 1:00 PM the next day, because somewhere over the Pacific you cross the date line.

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Yes, that would probably work.

Unless something odd happens at the International Date Line, like it jumping by a whole day or something. Maybe you need to go via the South Pole.

Actually, every time you accelerate relative to your surroundings you travel in time due to relativity effects, but only very very very slightly. :)

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TeamKill said:

Hell, just find a way to go near-light speed. Time slows down as you speed up, so...actually, i guess by walking we're kinda time-travelling.


I always thought that time only starts to slow down when you're moving *REALLY* fast, so I don't think that normal walking is time traveling. As for what Arno said, that might be the one thing that breaks my theory. Curse that damn Date Line.

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Xaser said:

I always thought that time only starts to slow down when you're moving *REALLY* fast

The effects occur at any speed, but they are just very small indeed until you approach light speed. Link. v²/c² is very small at walking speed.

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Yep. The faster you go, the faster time passes for you, relative to the norm. Meaning a week could go by on earth, whereas for you in your fancy near-lightspeed spaceship, only a day has passed.

However, that isn't the only thing that affects the time difference between a plane and the ground. Time is actually affected by gravity too, and obviously there's less gravity the higher above the earth's surface you go. I think that the higher you go, the faster time passes for you (i.e. gravity slows down time), but I could be wrong.

Regardless, I believe you could achieve the opposite of this by flying your spaceship near something with an absolutely enormous gravitational pull, e.g. a blackhole. Obviously you shouldn't fly too close though... ;)

Something to think about : the fact that gravity affects time means that time actually passes slightly slower/faster on different planets.

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IIRC, if an astronaut goes bombing off round the galaxy at near-light speed and then returns to the Earth, he will have experienced a shorter time period than the people who remained on earth. E.g., he might set off in 2100, experience a two-year journey, and arrive back in 2150.

Likewise if I walk to the shops and back and it takes me ten minutes, then when I get back home, the cat might have experienced that same period as about 10 minutes and 0.000000000000001 seconds. ;) And no, I haven't worked that out accurately.

Damnit NiGHTMARE, you completely changed the post I was responding to. So you weren't so tired after all?

Oh, and I predict a post by Fredrik mentioning Planck time.

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Well I remembered the blackhole stuff anyway, and one of your links provided me with the answer I was looking for.

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Oh my God, I can't believe it. I actually went and started to go and calculate time dilations. Anyways, if you did the whole 10 minute trip to the store thing travelling at a whopping 200,000,000 meters/sec., you and your cat would have about a 2.5 minute time difference. In other words, now, for you at least, the store trip has been cut down to 7.5 minutes. Of course, I don't even want to know why you'd be going to a store that took several minutes to get to travelling at 200,000,000 meters/sec, or about 2/3 the speed of light. Hey, I just discovered that if you travel at about 250,000,000 meters/sec, you can make any trip in half the time. Heh, I may have the calculations wrong, though, but they seem reasonable to me.

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Heh, that sounds roughly right (the calculations, I mean). I put way too many zeros in my above post, BTW.

Hmm, I spent a while looking for some spoof stuff about time travel by conformal mapping (e.g. dodging the international date line), but found nothing. Still, a couple of fun links I found in the process might be worth sharing:
prime numbers pictar
old jokes about catching a lion using mathematical methods

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Science fun at home!!! If anyone wants to calculate time dilation, here's the equation to plug numbers into. Heh, I might just look into calculated time dilation for accelerating objects later if I get bored. Wow, this is so fun, sort of like how my high school physics class would be if my teacher hadn't been a total space cadet.

t1 = t0 / ((1 - (v / c)^2)^(-1/2))

Took it from that link Grazza gave.

Variable list:
t1 = amount of time trip would take according to person travelling
t0 = amount of time trip would take according to person staying at home
v = velocity
c = speed of light

That's it. Have fun kiddies. To make it even easier, you can use Google to simplify unit conversions. Just be sure to have all units labeled. Be sure to tune in next week, when geekmarine explains how to make plutonium using common household items.

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geekmarine said:

Be sure to tune in next week, when geekmarine explains how to make plutonium using common household items.

Obscure UHF reference!

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Blackhole + time distortion + big plastic ring prop + good acting = good episode.

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Black hole + yellow giant star + big plastic ring prop + a few dozen big ships + one really big ship + good acting = better episode

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In response to the original post, that would NOT work. The time zones are only really marking how those areas relate to sunrise and sunset, not actual time.

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The best way to time travel is get so drunk you pass for three days, when you wake up, you'll realize (after the initial severe hangover, of course :P) that you've time traveled!

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Ichor said:

Black hole + yellow giant star + big plastic ring prop + a few dozen big ships + one really big ship + good acting = better episode

I don't quite remember that one.

+ replicators?

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Heheh. It shouldn't be too hard to find. It was on the Sci-Fi channel just a couple of hours ago.

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Ichor said:

Heheh. It shouldn't be too hard to find. It was on the Sci-Fi channel just a couple of hours ago.

I was in Pittsburgh a couple of hours ago. :P In a hopsital with no Scifi. :P

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Imp said:

this post = retarded

retarded post + retarded idea = Post hell

Whoa i r good at math

You are also good at taking challenges, I see.

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DooMBoy said:

The best way to time travel is get so drunk you pass for three days, when you wake up, you'll realize (after the initial severe hangover, of course :P) that you've time traveled!

Or you get into a coma and wake up 19 years into the future.

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