Building A Time Machine

from the cool-stuff dept

Fri, May 18th 2001 10:58am — Mike Masnick

Found this one over at Geekpress. New Scientist has an article about a scientist (a new one, perhaps?) who may have figured out a way to make a time machine. While there's still (obviously) a ton of work to be done, and a ridiculous number of questions, the physics (so far) seem solid. People haven't been able to poke a hole in his theories yet. Of course, I always considered the idea of a time machine to be unlikely because wouldn't we have seen people come back from the future already to tell us about it? With this particular time machine - there may be an answer to that. If this could be created you could only travel as far back as when the time machine turned on, since it works by building a loop in time. So, people could never come back further than when the time machine was first created.

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12 Comments

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wonko, 18 May 2001 @ 11:34am

Watch me poke a hole in his theory
It is impossible to travel in time. A very simple rule of physics proves this, and yet most physicists seem to ignore it.
Time is defined as a parameter for denoting change. Thus, changing from one point in a time dimension to another is self-referential and impossible. The standard equation for velocity is v = dx/dt (velocity = distance x over elapsed time t). In order to achieve velocity in a time dimension (time travel), the equation would have to be v = dt/dt. Anyone who's taken a simple pre-algebra class will tell you that this is logically impossible, and thus motion in spacetime is impossible.
Check out this insightful webpage for more information.
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Eric Hirschorn, 18 May 2001 @ 6:45pm

Professor Ronald Mallet
Dr Mallet was my physics teacher and academic advisor when I attended UConn years ago (class of ~85). While not a "new" scientist, he is in fact an imaginative, hard-working, and friendly one with expertise in general relativity. The short article in the "New Scientist" makes it clear that the proposed experiment is by no means guaranteed to work by currently accepted physics.
The "test subject" for time travel will be a quantum particle and the proposed mechanism is pure general relativity, which means the experiment might well fall within the regime where "quantum gravity" effects are important. This could be the primary value of the experiment -- there is no accepted theory of quantum gravity and no experimental data from such regimes. The New Scientist article didn't seem to point this out.
Well maybe this is my excuse to send an email to an old professor after many years, and also get a hold of preprints of his recent papers. Dr Eric
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Joe, 20 May 2001 @ 9:42pm

Time Travel Posibilites.
In your comments above you say that " Time travel might not be possible because we would already know about it. " (paraphrased) Well.. I held onto this belief until I had the thought as to what all this deal with aliens is. We all are very sceptical that life could exist somewhere else in the galaxy.. but what about another time?? Could these exterestial beings simply be highly evolved descendents ourselves.. traveling back in time for some purpose..? If so does this also mean that they are the decendents of americans.. since they seem t come into "contact" more often than other civilised cultures?

hmmm...
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John Wheeler, 29 May 2006 @ 8:32pm

Time Machine
Hey buddy, shut your mouth and let the dude try and build it. What the fucks your problem? I think its impossible, i'm building one right now, and your hear about me pretty soon and I better not her your mouth gabbin on about it.
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John Wheeler, 29 May 2006 @ 8:33pm

Time Machine
Hey buddy, shut your mouth and let the dude try and build it. What the fucks your problem? I think its impossible, i'm building one right now, and your hear about me pretty soon and I better not her your mouth gabbin on about it.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Dec 2006 @ 12:31pm

nn
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Dec 2006 @ 12:38pm

nasa already has a time machine nasa sent back in time two astronauts to jesus time
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Dec 2006 @ 12:39pm

nasa already has a time machine nasa sent back in time two astronauts to jesus time
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Dec 2006 @ 12:40pm

nasa already has a time machine nasa sent back in time two astronauts to jesus time
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Dec 2006 @ 1:00pm

the time machine is in area 51 nasa
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Patrick Norton, 23 Sep 2007 @ 5:33pm

Time machine
So strong is the belief in the existence of a "secret" that the religous cults generally contain some form of ritual of the mysterious custom of time travel which we hold to be the real clue to the white man's extraordinary power over goods and men.
Let's see these featured magic pieces of paper and cabalistic writing.
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Adalayssa, 3 Dec 2007 @ 6:37am

how can it be done?
building a time machine by going back as babies can it be true?
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