Posted on 07/26/2011 6:12:32 AM PDT by LibWhacker
Ever wondered what would happen if the dimension of time came to a sudden end? A new experiment reveals all
One of the most exciting areas of science is the emerging field of spacetime analogues. This is the discipline in which physicists play around with systems that have a formal mathematical link with general relativity.
For example, changes in the way electrons move in graphene as it is cooled are identical to the changes that may have occurred in the universe soon after the big bang. So physicists can use cool graph to test theories about the universe's earliest behaviour.
Another example is the formal mathematical analogy between the behaviour of light in electromagnetic space and in spacetime. That's interesting because physicists have recently learnt how to manipulate electromagnetic space using metamaterials. That has allowed them to create the electromagnetic equivalents of quantum foam, the big bang and even the entire multiverse.
All of these experiments are jaw droppers (imagine making black hole in the lab). That's why it's hard to top them.
But Igor Smolyaninov at the University of Maryland likes to have a go. Today, he explains how he's created an experiment that models the end of time.
The idea is straightforward (no really!). Metamaterials can be made to behave like ordinary space with two dimensions of space and one of time. But they can also be made to behave like other types of spaces, with two dimensions of time and one of space, for example.
Smolyaninov points out that an interesting situation occurs when these two materials are place end on. If a time dimension is perpendicular to a space dimension, it simply hits a dead end. In other words, time runs out.
"This situation (which cannot be realized in classic general relativity) may be called the "end of time"," he says in a paper with a couple of colleagues.
Not content with merely thinking about such a scenario, these guys have gone ahead and built it using a plastic called polymethyl methacrylate or PMMA deposited in stripes onto gold film. The light takes the form of plasmons moving across the surface.
So what happens at the end of time? Smolyaninov says that the electromagnetic field simply diverges, which is something of an anticlimax in an experiment so pregnant with sci-fi potential.
But interesting stuff nevertheless.
Make up any crazy story on the Big End and who’s to prove you wrong?
I've met some of the folks who work to make sure Igor and his cohorts in Moscow didn't "go over" to Iran or others. There are patriots out there watching after us night and day and you just wouldn't believe who they are.
Well, I do think we’re living in the End Times.
Tell me more!
No, don’t! I’d love to know. I just don’t want anyone else to know. Not to mention, you’d have to kill me if I did...
There's a cluster of these guys in the Virginia Suburbs.
My clock stopped today. Wow.
They will be able to observe the end of time in person on Dec. 20th of 2012—if we are to believe the ancient Mayans.
Personally, I think they were off by about a month. If Obama is re-elected and takes office on Jan. 20th ....
From the point of view of a photon, or anything else that travels at light speed, time never existed anyway. At least according to Relativity theory.
Women and minorities will be hit hardest. Cockroaches and alligators will survive.
Stopping time in the lab?
Well, I don’t see what could possibly go wro
I use that quantum foam when I’m shaving and I admit to a little time disorientation afterwards but I attributed that to the alcohol in the aftershave. I’m going to have to quit sampling it after splashing it on me I guess.
Can anybody actually read this? And understand it? Sounds like goobledy-gook.
So now we find what/who God really is/was. Just a bunch of humanoids who found but not realized that electrons can wipe out time or expand space.
bmfl
Make one up about the beginning, and who’s to prove you right?
If I could save time in a bottle......
Some people seem to intentionally make things more difficult to understand or follow. Makes them feel intellectually superior I guess. Smart educators explain it so that practically anyone could understand it, or at least have some general idea. This author is terrible, as are a good number of university professors.
Time. An interesting concept. The Universe is supposedly 14-15 Billion years old, yet may last for trillions of years. Strangely enough we only last 100 years. Some particles only last for a millionth of a second. So exactly what is the point of creating human beings who are NOT going to last for the next million years let alone the next 100,000 years? Our existence is pointless.
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