As I sit here, catching up on the current episodes (I'm up to Matt Smith and 'The Almost People') with my buddy J.D. I have a thought.
50-ish years ago, a Tardis was a pretty genius concept. A time machine, camouflaged as a phone booth, that was bigger on the INSIDE than the outside. Remember this was in the 1960s, when the moon landing was still a gleam in NASA's eye. Our understanding of theoretical physics has come a long way since then.
So. Is a box that's bigger on the inside a possibility?
(Okay, first a disclaimer: I am NOT a physicist. I am more of a hobbyist in the area of theoretical physics and cosmology. I find it pretty fun to think about, and I fervently hope for a functional warp drive in my lifetime, but I have no formal training other than reading a few books by Hawking and his contemporaries.)
(Disclaimer to the disclaimer: if we as a species do manage a functional warp drive while I still have a few good years left, you can bet I'll be the FIRST volunteer for star fleet!)
Ok, so back to the question at hand. Can we create a box that is bigger on the inside than its' outer dimensions? As far as I understand it, I believe the answer is yes. Well, yes in a strictly theoretical sense, anyway.
It's all to do with Gravity. We already know that gravity and space time are functionally intertwined. If the current theories are correct, and gravity is really a localized bending of space time around a significant amount of mass, and it also holds that Mass and energy are fundamentally interchangeable, then a high enough amount of energy in a confined space can distort space time in exactly the same way that gravity does.
Look back at Einstein's famous equation: E=MC(squared). E means energy. M is Mass. C is shorthand for the speed of light (or 186,000 miles/second). Here's the thing: The equals sign in that equation tells me that energy is just mass in a different form. Which holds true in the other direction as well.
If enough mass can warp spacetime in such a way as to create the effect we call gravity, then energy can as well. So here's my idea: if we have an unlimited amount of energy, we can focus that energy into a form that will bend spacetime (since energy is matter and matter bends spacetime) we can create a localized distortion of gravity to warp and essentially stretch spacetime in a localized area.
Thus, we need a way to condense energy into matter that is still in the flux state of energy... Let's call this a 'flux capacitor' (see what I did there?)... So, we build a focusing device to channel the distortion created by our Flux Capacitor. We use these two devices in conjunction to essentially stretch the spacetime inside a box, creating more space on the inside than on the outside. Tardis created.
Wow, sometimes I even impress myself! A fun thought experiment just let us begin construction of a working Tardis! Let me know what you think.
(Final Disclaimer: I could be totally wrong about all of this. I understand that I am just smart enough to get myself into trouble. So please, if someone comes along who actually understands more about this stuff than I do, please feel free to enlighten me!)
(Really Final I Mean It This Time Disclaimer: If some covert agency is monitoring this blog, and let me say, you boys are doing a really bang up good job at whatever it is you do, if you ARE monitoring this and you happen to be impressed by my astounding genius; feel free to take me away from here (Good-Will-Hunting style) into a new life designing warp drives and such. I'd be fine with that as long as my family can come as well!)
No comments:
Post a Comment