What I came up with during physics...

A

Alonocus

Temporal Novice
First of all, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone on the TTI forums.

Second of all, I got bored during my physics lesson, and my mind wandered onto Torchwood (BBC Drama) and consequentially onto time travel. I came up with some formulae regarding time travel, probaly pish-posh, and here it is.

To begin with, you must be on the Equator, exactly, any location, but on the equator.

X=Speed
N=One Earth Rotation in MPH (I don't know the exact figure, so the closest I can get is 1,000MPH(Please correct me if otherwise))

So, where:
((X>N) in direction of rotation)= Time Travel towards the future.
((X>N) in opposite diection of rotation)= Time Travel towards the Past
((X=N) in opposite direction of rotation)= Stationary in Time.

And the forula for now is:
((X<N) in any direction)= Present

All this is probably useless, but please, tell me your thoughts, and show me any formulae you have written.
 
I'm no physicist, but I believe time varies at velocity relative to c (speed of light), not the earth's rotation.

But I see where you're going with your thought process. Just remember, time is not an earthly constraint. It exists everywhere in the universe.
 
Aloncus,

So, where:
((X>N) in direction of rotation) = Time Travel towards the future.
((X>N) in opposite diection of rotation) = Time Travel towards the Past
((X=N) in opposite direction of rotation)= Stationary in Time.

And the forula for now is:
((X<N) in any direction)= Present
Click to expand...

You're close enough with an estimate of 1,000 mph for the angular velocity of the Earth at the equator.

The Earth turns toward the east from the perspective of a person looking down from above the North Pole. We usually express the speed of light in distance per second.

Let's say that you are traveling east at 1,000 miles per hour relative to the ground below you. With respect to the ground below you you are traveling at ~0.28 miles per second.

Plug in the Lorentz transformation:

Gamma = 1/(sqrt 1- v^2/c^2)

Let c= 186,000 miles per second

Let v = .28 miles per second

Gamma = 1/ sqrt (1 - (0.28^2/186,000^2)) = 1.0000000000011297

Therefore one second as measured by your clock will be 1.0000000000011297 seconds as measured by someone with a similar clock sitting at rest on the equator. Time appears from her perspective to be running slightly slower in your vehicle.

Now reverse course. Use the same amount of thrust for the same period of time to get up to speed going west. From your perspective the ground speed is now 2,000 mph (you're traveling 1,000 mph west but the ground is also traveling 1,000 mph to the east). Your ground speed is ~.56 miles per second.

The gamma factor is now:

Gamma = 1/sqrt (1 - .56^2/186,000^2) = 1.0000000000045186

Your clock appears to be running even more slowly according to the observer at rest on the equator. But the clock isn't running backwards.

We're also assuming that you don't make any measurements while you are accelerating up to speed. Therefore this is a problem involving the special theory of relativity. In the problem you can reverse the points of view. From your perspecitve you could equally say that the person "at rest" on the equator is moving at .28 or .56 mps and apply the gamma factor to her clock.

But everything isn't "relative". Only one of you is ultimately going to be the one who was in the moving frame and experience "real" time dilation. You'll figure that out quickly because in order to compare clocks (in person) you have to slam on the brakes, slow down, turn around and land on the Earth. You will feel the effects of the braking (acceleration). It's your clock that will have run off the least amount of time.
 
Did you guys ever see the first superman movie ?? All you have to do is fly around the world really fast and youll spin the earth real fast to move forward or backward.....haha..
 
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