http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5896048467372201322 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Mallett http://www.physics.uconn.edu/~mallett/Mallett2003.pdf
As mentioned last week, time travel into the future has been known to us for quite some time. First of all, time is not a steady entity. Every bit of matter possesses its own clock and keeps track of time differently depending on certain conditions, one of which is the speed the matter is moving at. This is verified by measuring every matter's clock with a photon clock. Because the speed of light is a constant, every matter's clock is measured equally. In order to travel into the future, we simply must move at a very high speed (near the speed of light), which, simultaneously slows down our "clock".
The possibility of traveling back into the past, however, was not investigated rigorously until recently. Prof. Ronald Mallet, inspired by his dream to see his deceased father, is believed to have invented the world's first time machine. It is important because his work is grounded on rigorous mathematics and physics ("ordinary calculus, multivariable calculus, ordinary differential equations, partial differential equations, vector analysis, vector calculus, matrix analysis, tensor calculus, group theory, green's functions, physics, theoretical mechanics, electrodynamics, quantum mechanics, and general relativity"). An event is governed by at least four dimensions, the three dimensions determine the location and the last dimension determines the time. Prof. Mallet uses the analogy of a 2D world to explain what it means to travel in a dimension not tangible to us. A being living on a 2D world, i.e. a flat sheet of paper, would not be able to see or feel a three dimensional paper clip hovering above its world. When the paper clip punctures the paper, however, it is introduced to the 2D world but no one would know where it came from. Once we remove the paper clip, the beings would think that this object has vanished. Moreover, if the sheet of paper was folded and the paper clip punctures through all the folds, then the paper clip would appear in many places at once.
One of the enigmas mentioned last week was: What happens if you do travel back into time and kill your dad? Wouldn't that imply that you will not have existed? If so, then how can you have traveled back into time? One of the traditional conclusions was that even though one can travel back in time, one cannot alter the events that have occurred (things will prevent you from doing so when you are in the past). Another explanation, offered by doctor David Deutsch at Oxford University, is that there are parallel universes that are constantly interfering with one another. This explanation seems very plausible since, at the subatomic level, particles are constantly doing weird and unexpected things such as suddenly changing its direction, merging with something else, disappearing, etc. If there were parallel universes, then these subatomic particles are just a collection of some from our universe and some from other universes. If one then travels back in time to kill his father, one can do so, but, contrary to the former explanation, alters the events of a parallel universe. This ultimately implies that there are an infinite amount of parallel universes.
How does one achieve time travel into the past? The natural phenomenon that enables this time travel is actually the black hole. It is a collapsed star, which implies that it is extremely dense and creates an enormous gravitational field. It is so collosal that the space-time fabric is being twisted by its rotation, "like swirling water in a whirlpool". This swirling effect is Einstein's lesser known concept of frame dragging. As one travels around the black hole, one can actually emerge at a time before one began the trip. Furthermore, as one approaches the void in the black hole known as the event horizon, one can attain the speed of light. But since, to outside stationary observers, one is viewed to be traveling faster than the speed of light, he or she will be perceived as to have disappeared as he or she travels into the past.
Locking onto this phenomenon, Prof. Ronald Mallet uses ultra powerful laser beams to distort the spacetime fabric. His conclusions for his machine are, substantially, that it acts as a phone line between now and the future and that time travel to times before the machine was turned on is not possible using this machine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program.html http://www.tenthdimension.com/flash2.php