Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site wucs.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!wucs!scs From: scs@wucs.UUCP (Steve Swope) Newsgroups: net.movies Subject: Re: Re: Why shouldn't time travel leave you in the same spot? Message-ID: <1169@wucs.UUCP> Date: Wed, 18-Sep-85 20:32:23 EDT Article-I.D.: wucs.1169 Posted: Wed Sep 18 20:32:23 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 20-Sep-85 03:49:52 EDT References: <9793@ucbvax.ARPA> <323@looking.UUCP> <2243@sdcrdcf.UUCP> <2997@sdcc3.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: Washington U. in St. Louis, CS Dept. Lines: 27 Summary: Time travelers aren't necessarily that stupid In article <2997@sdcc3.UUCP>, ewa@sdcc3.UUCP (Eric Anderson) writes: > In article <1016@rayssd.UUCP> m1b@rayssd.UUCP (M. Joseph Barone) writes: > > .... A stationary time machine > >should glue the traveler to the exact location on Earth no matter how > >far back or forward in time he goes. > > Consider: The earth rotates around it's axis at 1000 mph at the equator, > around the sun at around 50,000 mph, and the sun rotates around the center > of the milky way at ?? mph (anyone care to compute that?) > > If a time machine put you back even one hour at the exact same spot, you > would be more than 51,000 miles from the earth (which would go whizzing > past/through you one hour later) > Anyone clever enough to build a time machine in the first place is clever enough to account for the displacement. Likely, there would be a subsystem which would allow the pilot/operator to lock the machine's position relative to some object (e.g.; the local planet). Alternatively, the travel might occur in n-space (n>4), so that you would disappear at one place/time and reappear at another. By analogy, consider lifting the tip of a pencil from one place on a sheet of paper and moving it to another. Steve Swope (aka scs@wucs.UUCP) "Brigadier, A straight line may be the shortest path between two points, but it is by no means the most interesting!" Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com