The Time Machine

As an unofficial disclaimer, I do state beforehand that the work on time machine is not claimed to be mine(come on, how can it be?), but I do quote the discoveries of the man, and build my views on them

Till the end of the nineteenth century, travel, in the very basic sense, meant traversing along any direction over the plane of the earth. You travelled by rail or road from New York to Los Angeles, or sailed to a vacation in the Hawaii. So in essence you travelled in two dimensions, either North-South, or East-West, or a combination of both. People had the idea of travel in the third dimension,that is air travel (but obvious, birds have been flying around for as far back as the civilised human mind can historically see), but just didn't have the means of doing it. Some greats did see through the tricks of the trade, but that was just about it.

That notion changed in the twentieth century, as early as 1903 when the Wright brothers flew for a few fleeting seconds. Today, aeroplanes are as natural a means of transport as the horsecart used to be a couple of centuries ago.

Also, the twentieth century saw space travel, an extreme, or should we say ultimate proof of man's conquest over the three dimensions of space. In a layman's terms, North-South, East-West, Skywards and Earthwards (if you'd care to accept this bizarre jargon, else suit yourself).

As one of the prominent contemporary scientists in this field has said, if the dimensions of physics have been stretched to include one for time, why not practical issues like travel? And this is a very valid practical question, only to be cut short by another question "Do we have the means?"

And his answer is "Not yet, but just."

And this takes us to our main topic of discussion at last - "What exactly shall it mean to travel in time? And what shall be the basic underlying concepts of the physics of it?"

For starters, let's consider this situation - Answer for yourself "Can you be at the same point in space at two different instants of time?"

And now if I ask you - "Can you be, at the same instant of time at two different points in space?"

You'll probably consider this being bizarre. But what was Science fiction 15 years ago is well on its way to becoming a fact (Sarah Connors may rejoice). Time travel is just the answer to this question.

Now, talking about its viability and governing laws, as of now, human teleportation just isn't possible. And it's tough, believe me.

The highest level of teleportation that has been achieved is for ions, which have been proven to be entangled (Einstein called this "spooky action", one of my posts in the near future), and this makes the possibility of human teleportation rather thin, as of now.

The time machine basically works on the principle of teleportation through entanglement.This is like transfer of the quantum states of one particle at a point in space to a paricle of the same nature in another point in space.

For example, to teleport an electron from Madras to Shimla, there will have to be another electron at the other end of the teleporter at Shimla, whose quantum states will be changed by the teleporting device to match the one at Madras. So the electron will effectively be at two points in space at the same time (Starters don't worry, I shall explain entanglement in my next post).

Now time travel can be to the future, or to the past. Travelling to the future is easy. Travel for some time at near speed of light and then return. You'll be less aged than people around you, because the clock runs slow for you. This is reality, and not an illusion. The twin paradox is an event which can be proved the day spaceships are made to travel at, say 0.6c, or 0.7c(obviously you won't try doing this on the face of the earth, or you'll be charged a ticket for speeding).

That's one of the direct inferences from the Special Theory of Relativity.

But traveling to the past is not only difficult to realise, but is unethical too, to an extent. It also has its share of paradoxes and other if's and buts, and leads to an enforcement in the belief of the existence of parallel universes. I ask this fundamental question - "If I can change my past, then suppose I go and kill my grandfather when he was a young boy, then I wouldn't be born in the first place, but since I killed my grandfather, so I exist! So why this paradox?"

And I answer - Time travel to the past will not mean that you can change the outcome of events that already took place. You will at the most make failed tries. But nothing that you do shall change the history in this universe.

Now for the basic setup of the proposed time machine...

I quote the work of Prof. Ronald L. Mallet of Connecticut University, who with the help of one of our own people, Chandra Roy Choudhury, has created the first effective time machine.

It is basically a setup where Laser paths are retraced in a loop. In that way, you might have the phenomena of frame dragging, and also ones like closed timelike curves.

This setup hasn't actually come into being, but the only major problems with its existence aas of now is the technical aspect, where a laser that powerful and a path complimentary to its power is on the way of being designed. Some questions have been posed at the theory of it, like the linear singularity it creates shall stay on even when the lasers are shut down. That shall violate some laws of energy conservation, but rules, as we know are made to be bent or broken, who knows. And this objection does not in its very basic essence, prohibit the existence of any set up of this sort. I insist that you visit: http://www.physorg.com/news63371210.html

Now, coming to the very ethics of time travel. Given that time travel shall be possible in the near future, what ethical problems shall it pose? After all, all of us humans will like to go back to some point in the past and change a few things that we regret the most. But is this not a way of tampering with nature? Do we not, in a certain sense, question the existence of a Supreme Power, that watches over our deeds? Put even that aside. Will it be worthwhile traveling to the past or the future, given that you cannot change outcomes in this universe, just to watch things happen? Although yeah, golden moments of ones life are very special indeed, but that itself is the catch. They occur just once. That's why they are special in the first place. Please share your thoughts on these.

My Tryst with Physics

Physics is a very easy subject, or so we would have our friends from standard 9th think.

Just substitute values in the equation, and wolla!! You have the answer that is accurate to the 100th place of decimal. And yeah, throw in a few conservation laws, and the syllabus is as good as done.

This had been the state of physics as Newton described it. But there were new mysteries that needed to be unlocked. New mysteries that were seeking to be unravelled and uncovered. The consequent centuries saw the development of physics, but who was to know that the very basic subject that science spotlit as a crusade against hypothetical philosophy, would turn against its very own want for order and accuracy in the world?

Physics today is no child's play.

Studying it's depths requires a mind of an artist, a philosopher, more than a mere childish brain which takes physics to be a subject governed by quadratic equations.

In this blog, I shall try and reveal the most intriguing conflicts between the modern day physics and layman logic, which might be food for thought for many. No doubt my opinions may differ or be wrong, but that does not decrease the potency of the material posted, even one bit.