As we progress through our readings and other coursework, we will encounter specific terms that relate to time travel narratives. Our challenge will be to create definitions of these terms as a class.
These are collaborative definitions. Everyone contributes to each definition. Just because it is posted, doesn't mean it is correct. If someone makes a mistake, correct it. I will be able to track the activity on this page and therefore know who is and who is not contributing.
Feel free to include links, graphics or movies that enhance your definitions.
BE WARNED: Any material taken from other websites (information, pictures, clips etc . . .) must be acknowledged!List where the material came from and who it was created by.
Timespeak provided by Nova is a great list for familiarizing yourself with some general terminology.
CHRONOLOGY: the science of determining the order in which events occurred; an arrangement of events into chronological order; called a timeline when involving graphical elements
Paradox: In scientific usage refers to results that are fundamentally contradictory, in other words logically impossible. In logic a paradox can be a statement that contradicts itself, "I always lie." If that statement is true then it must be false. (www.dictionary.net)
An example of paradox: many spiritual teachers instruct that we must live acknowledging our powerful ability to choose, yet this apparent free will only exists as part of a bigger picture in which the universe has an intricately designed plan.
"One of us always tells the truth!, and one of us always lies"
geodesic: pertains to the geometry of curved surfaces, in which geodesic lines take the place of the straight lines of plane geometry.
- also defined as the shortest path between point in space.
- comes from the word geodesy- the science of measuring the size and shape of the Earth.
- important use in general relativity because they describe the motion of inertial test particles.
Cronology Protection Conjecture: a conjecture by the physicist Stephen Hawking which stated that the laws of physics prevent time travel except on subatomic levels. Time travel is represented by the existance of closed timelike curves. This apparantly prevents time paradoxes and general relativity is used to make this possible.
Relativity: a theory, formulated by Albert Einstein, which states that all motion must be defined relative to a frame of referance and that space and time are relative, rather than absolute concepts. It consists of two prinicpal parts: the theory of dealing with uniform motion (special relativity), and the thoery dealing with gravity (general relativity). http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/relativity
The Universe is expanding, and the far parts of it are moving away from us faster than the speed of light. This does not contradict the theory of special relativity, since it is space itself that is expanding.
Space Time: the four-dimensional continuum, having three spatial coordinates and one temporal coordinate, in which all physical quantities may be located. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Spacetime
So what is the four-dimensional continuum?
Space Time (Sulki)
In 1895, in his novel, The Time Machine, H.G. Wells wrote, “There is no difference between time and any of the three dimensions of space except that our consciousness moves along it.” He added, “Scientific people…know very well that time is only a kind of space.” It has always been the case that time and space are measured using real numbers, and the suggestion that the dimensions of space and time could be switched could have been raised by the first people to have formalized physics, but it ultimately the contradictions between Maxwell's laws and Galilean relativity had to come to a head before the idea of spacetime was ready to become mainstream.
The concept of spacetime combines space and time within a single coordinate system, typically with 4 dimensions: length, width, height, and time. Dimensions are components of a coordinate grid typically used to locate a point in space, or on the globe, such as by latitude, longitude and planet (Earth). However, with spacetime, the coordinate grid is used to locate "events" (rather than just points in space), so time is added as another dimension to the grid.
Wormhole: A short-cut through space time that exists because of the general relativity. Traveling through wormhole is faster than traveling at the speed of light, which allows the possibility of time travel. Recently scientists calculated that the existence of wormhole could be achieved by using “exotic matter”, which is a negative energy. But this may be possible some other time in future.
Butterfly Effect: A name given to the extreme sensitivity of chaotic systems, in which small changes or perturbations lead to drastically different outcomes. A common example of this phenomenon is a butterfly flapping its wings in California, and thereby initiating a change in weather patterns that results in the formation of a thunderstorm in Nebraska.
It may be argued for in various ways: by appeal to logical laws and metaphysical necessities; by appeal to the existence and nature of God; by appeal to causal determinism. When argued for in the first way, it is commonly called "Logical fatalism" (or, in some cases, "Metaphysical fatalism"); when argued for in the second way, it is commonly called "Theological fatalism". When argued for in the third way it is not now commonly referred to as "fatalism" at all.
Cyclic time:The time interval between successive appearances of any information that is transmitted perodically. As per modern understanding it is considered that the time progresses in a linear manner. There are many theories, which explain the nature, origin, its end and other matters related to the time. According to the most popular theory, the time originated at the Big Bang with the start of the universe and will end at big Crunch where the universe also would end. Most of the ancient societies believed that the time progressed in a cyclic manner. They observed the cyclic nature of the day and nught, similar repeating pattern of seasons year after year and extended the same for larger tome scales too. The cyclic perception of time is also related to the feminine and the birth t death cycle that is witnessed in all living creation.
Twin Paradox: The possible disparity between the ages of space travelers and nonspace travelers due to relativistic time dilatation. It is a thought experiment in special relativity (SR): of two twin brothers, one undertakes a long space journey while the other remains on Earth. When the traveller finally returns to Earth, it is observed that he is younger than the twin who stayed put.
Time dilation is the phenomenon whereby an observer finds that another's clock, which is physically identical to their own, is ticking at a slower rate as measured by their own clock. This is often interpreted as time "slowing down" for the other clock, but that is only true in the context of the observer's frame of reference. Locally (i.e., from the perspective of any observer within the same frame of reference, without reference to another frame of reference), time always passes at the same rate. The time dilation phenomenon applies to any process that manifests change over time. (Natasha)
In the vacuum free space is an important physical constant usually denoted by the letter c. It is the speed of all electromagnetic radiation, including visible light, in free space. It is the speed of anything having zero rest mass.`The SI metre` is defined such that the speed of light in a vacuum is exactly; 299,792.458 metres per second (1,079,252,849 km/h). In imperial units, the speed of light is about 670,616,629.4 miles per hour or 983,571,056.4 feet per second (roughly one foot per nanosecond), which is about 186,282.397 miles per second.
Causation (In philosophy): This is the examination and description of the correlation between cause and effect. Causation links
http://www.iep.utm.edu/t/timetrav.htm
theory of relativity
(natalia)
simply relativity, refers specifically to two theories of Alber Einstein: special relativity and general relativity. Special relativity is a theory of the structure of spacetime. It was introduced in Alber Einstein's 1905 paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies". Special relativity is based on two postulates which are contradictory in classical mechanics: The laws of physics are the same for all observers in uniform motion relative to one another, The speed of light in a vacuum is the same for all observers, regardless of their relative motion or of the motion of the source of the light.
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