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from the "Back-to-the-Future"-cannot-not-happen dept.
Young physicist 'squares the numbers' on time travel:
Paradox-free time travel is theoretically possible, according to the mathematical modelling of a prodigious University of Queensland undergraduate student.
Fourth-year Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) student Germain Tobar has been investigating the possibility of time travel, under the supervision of UQ physicist Dr Fabio Costa.
"Classical dynamics says if you know the state of a system at a particular time, this can tell us the entire history of the system," Mr Tobar said.
[...] "For example, if I know the current position and velocity of an object falling under the force of gravity, I can calculate where it will be at any time.
"However, Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts the existence of time loops or time travel -- where an event can be both in the past and future of itself -- theoretically turning the study of dynamics on its head."
[...] "I wondered: "is time travel mathematically possible?"
Mr Tobar and Dr Costa say they have found a way to "square the numbers" and Dr Costa said the calculations could have fascinating consequences for science.
"The maths checks out -- and the results are the stuff of science fiction," Dr Costa said.
[...] "Try as you might to create a paradox, the events will always adjust themselves, to avoid any inconsistency.
"The range of mathematical processes we discovered show that time travel with free will is logically possible in our universe without any paradox."
Journal Reference:
Germain Tobar, Fabio Costa. Reversible dynamics with closed time-like curves and freedom of choice - IOPscience, Classical and Quantum Gravity (DOI: 10.1088/1361-6382/aba4bc)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday September 26 2020, @01:16PM (1 child)
Classical physics explains a lot very well: Newton's apple, the orbital mechanics that interplanetary spacecraft use to plan trajectories, even some basic thermodynamics is well modeled while maintaining a blind eye to chaos.
Classical physics is a huge step forward from: "The cannonball will obviously fall faster than a musketball due to its size." Of course, the cannonball does actually attract the earth to itself proportionally faster than the musketball does, but 10e-43 vs 10e-45 is hard to notice vs 1.0 plus chaotic noise on the order of 10e-20.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 26 2020, @02:58PM
Its a standard example in grade school that a cannonball and feather fall at the same rate.
https://moon.nasa.gov/resources/331/the-apollo-15-hammer-feather-drop/ [nasa.gov]