Period 1 Group 1: The DeLorean Post #3 (Colin Lee, Alex Silva, Jacob O'Connell)

Post 3

During some intense research, I came across a very useful, if hypothetical, image explaining a possible solution to how the flux capacitor in the DeLorean's flux capacitor works:



Link to the original image if it's too small to read: http://www.liveforfilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/flux-capacitor-back-to-the-future.jpg
(Courtesy of Liveforfilms.com)

In a summary, though, the DeLorean uses the energy from the nuclear fission reactor (or the nuclear fusion reactor, depending on the film) to provide 1.21 gigawatts of positive energy.

Now here's where things get abstract: if this picture shows that the DeLorean really uses wormholes for time travel, it will need a burst of powerful negative energy to sustain the wormhole's existence long enough to use. To produce negative energy, positive energy must be "squeezed"; that is, a quantum vacuum must be stabilized so that particles stop popping in and out of existence. By doing this, it is possible to produce negative energy as a result of extra positive energy existing elsewhere (mind you, this is a very simplified explanation on what actually goes on).
This is probably what the capacitor is for: releasing enough positive energy at one time to create a powerful enough pulse (or flux) of negative energy to maintain the wormhole.

Courtesy of http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net

With negative energy now created, a wormhole, which also phases in and out of existence very rapidly, can be sustained long enough for the DeLorean to pass through. Whilst in the wormhole, the sheer speed of travel, which may outrun the speed of light, is enough to "slow time"; a person in the DeLorean would have aged less than someone outside of the wormhole, which makes time travel forward make sense. If the car travels faster than the speed of light, it is theoretically possible to also travel back in time, though details on this are very fuzzy.

While it may sound possible now that certain things have been explained, the flux capacitor is still not a feasible piece of technology today. The main obstacle is the amount of energy required to generate all of this negative energy. Creating even a microscopic wormhole requires an absurd amount of energy; a wormhole 1 meter long and 10^-21 meters thick will require the energy of about 10 billion stars running for 1 year. While it is theoretically possible, to create an infinite amount of positive and negative energy using quantum mechanics, humanity does not yet posses the means to make this happen. This sadly contradicts directly the flux capacitor's 1.21 gigawatts of required energy; this is nowhere near enough energy to maintain a wormhole. Details on traveling back in time are rather confusing as well, so until scientists research more about energy efficiency and space-time properties, the DeLorean is not likely to be within sight for quite a while.

Even if the DeLorean and time travel were possible, there would be many social and time related issues that may come with traveling the space-time continuum. For one, the ability to manipulate time and history is immensely powerful. It would be possible for one person to alter the course of history to his/her advantage. Marty McFly and Doc Brown in the movies have enough moral responsibility to keep the timeline stable, but others may not hesitate to use the time machine to get rich on stocks, get themselves out of past trouble, and make sure that people they don't like do not get born. No lessons about life can be learnt either if a certain someone can just go back in time and erase his/her mistakes; there will be no motivation to restrain wrongdoing if you can just go back and fix it.
There may also very well be side-effects to these journeys through time. One small action may trigger off a chain of events that has a drastic effect on the future, potentially changing the world.

Considering the above, it is probably best that time travel is not possible. Inevitably, no matter who invents the time machine or for what purpose it is built for, it will tickle down somehow, and those with ill intent will obtain such machinery and use it for their own interests. Such a device in a villain's hands is even more damaging than a nuclear bomb in a villain's hands; his/her actions while traveling back in time will affect more people than just the people he/she interacts with; it would affect a whole line of events, bringing a chain of history down another path and altering the present. Well, since this isn't possible (yet), we can all be assured that our pasts are constant, and that our futures are altered only by our own decisions.

Until the day a silver car zaps into thin air....

Works Consulted

Margaret Rouse. "What is a flux?" whatis.techtarget.com. March 10, 2010. Tech Target. Web. 5 October        2013.

Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. "Back to the Future (1985) Movie Transcript." sfy.ru. n.d. N.p. Web. 5           October 2013.

Marshall Brain and Charles Bryant. "How Capacitors Work." howstuffworks.com. n.d. Discovery                     Communications. Web. 5 October 2013.

"Flux Capacitor." backtothefuture.wikia.com. n.d. Wikia. Web. 29 September 2013.

Nola Taylor Redd. "What is a Wormhole?" space.com. April 29, 2013. TechMedia Network. Web. 5                 October 2013.

"electric flux." britannica.com. n.d. Encyclopedia Britannica. Web. 5 October 2013.

Doug Davis. "Electric Flux."www.ux1.eiu.edu. 2002. Eastern Illinois University. Web. 5 October 2013.

Lawrence H. Ford and Thomas A. Roman. "Negative Energy." bibliotecapleyades.net. January 2000. Biblioteca Plyades. Web. 12 October 2013.