Maggie Gaster

Lambda
4/7/08

Research Brief II
Major Thinkers
(Writing Section)

It took Albert Einstein ten years, from 1905 to 1915, to come up with a general

theory of relativity. It basically stated that rest and uniform motion are relative to the

earth’s rotation. You can tell that it is true when you’re in a plane or on a bus that is

moving. You can’t walk around without feeling turbulence, unless it is traveling at a

uniform velocity. Albert Einstein was strongly influenced by the discoveries of

Pythagoras of ancient Greece. His Pythagorean Theorum, AB²=AC²+BC² , suggested that

the earth might move. He also believed that the earth might be spherical. Now we know

those things to be true.

Another scientist who greatly influenced Albert Einstein was Philolaus, another

ancient Greek math mathematician and Philosopher. Philolaus was a student of

Pythagoras and built upon many of his theories. He believed that the earth traced out a

circular orbit keeping the same face towards the center. He also believed that the solar

system, or the earth, moon, sun, five planets, and sphere of fixed stars moved around a

"central fire" he didn't think it was the sun, but something called "Estia," a mystical fire

that was based on some greek gods like the greek goddess of fire, Hestia. His idea that

the earth and solar system spun on an axis around a "central fire," which we now know to

be the sun, greatly influenced the science behind Einstein's theory of relativity. Later

findings based on Einstein's theories, led to the possibility of time travel.

(http://discovermagazine.com/2008/mar/10-einstein-didn.t-grok-his-own-

revolution/?searchterm=%22Teleportation?%20Very%20Possible).

(Roots of Relativity, Hoffmann Banesh. Scientific American Books, New York, New

York. 1983)

(http://www.crystalinks.com/philolaus.html)

Black holes were first discovered using the equations Albert Einstein came up

with for his general theory of relativity. Karl Schwarzchild, a physicist and soldier in the

WWII German army, used Einstein's equation in a problem that modeled the geometry of

space around a star. However, Schwartzchild's problem scared Einstein. If his

calculations were correct, and the mass of a star was somehow compressed, time would

freeze and space would become infinite. That was the beginning of black holes, a major

component in the science behind the feasibility of time travel. Black holes are important

because they are believed to be the entry ways to wormholes. Wormholes are important

because they are like tunnels that can be shortcuts to the past, future, and other

dimensions.

Michio Kaku is a physicist at the city University of New York who is using

Einstein's work as a basis for his work exploring the possibility of time travel,

wormholes, and light teleportation. Einstein's general theory of relativity suggests a

possibility of wormholes, because his research suggests that the universe curves in on

itself allowing for little wormholes, or shortcuts through space and time. However, there

was a problem of possibly getting trapped inside of wormholes, and not being able to

travel through them. In 1988, a scientist at Caltech, named Kip Thorne found a possible
way out of the black holes, and a way to move freely through the wormholes. He called

them “traversable wormholes”

(http://discovermagazine.com/2008/mar/10-einstein-didn.t-grok-his-own-

revolution/?searchterm=%22Teleportation?%20Very%20Possible.%20Next%20Up:%20

Time%20Travel.%22).

(http://discovermagazine.com/2008/mar/teleportation-very-possible-next-up-time-travel)

Without all of the scientists that have contributed their ideas, time travel would not be

feasible. Furthermore, if it had not been for the fiction which inspired those scientists, the

scientific concepts would never have been fully propagated. So, thanks to the influence of

fiction writers, and the scientists who expanded on their ideas, time travel is a definite

possibility (http://www.helium.com/items/448159-there-parts-lifeexistence-space).