Time A Traveler's Guide

by Pickover, Clifford A.

• ISBN13: 9780195120424
• ISBN10: 0195120426
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-04-30
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

"Bucky Fuller thought big," Wired magazine recently noted, "Arthur C. Clarke thinks big, but Cliff Pickover outdoes them both." And now, in his newest book, Cliff Pickover outdoes even himself, probing a mystery that has baffled mystics, philosophers, and scientists throughout history--Whatis the nature of time? In Time: A Traveler's Guide, Pickover takes readers to the forefront of science as he illuminates the most mysterious phenomenon in the universe--time itself. Is time travel possible? Is time real? Does it flow in one direction only? Does it have a beginning and an end? What is eternity? Theseare questions that Pickover tackles in this stimulating blend of Chopin, philosophy, Einstein, and modern physics, spiced with diverting side-trips to such topics as the history of clocks, the nature of free will, and the reason gold glitters. Pickover includes numerous diagrams so readers have notrouble following along, computer code that lets us write simulations for various aspects of time travel, and an on-going science fiction tale featuring quirky characters who yearn to travel back in time to hear Chopin play in person. By the time we finish this book, we understand such seeminglyarcane concepts as space-time diagrams, light cones, cosmic moment lines, transcendent infinite speeds, Lorentz transformations, superluminal and ultraluminal motions, ninkowskian space-times, Godel universes, closed timelike curves, and Tipler cylinders. And most important, we will understand that time travel need not be confined to myth, science fiction, Hollywood fantasies, or scientific speculation. Time travel, we will realize, is possible.

Author Biography

Clifford A. Pickover is Research Staff Member at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. The lead writer for the brain-boggler column in Discover magazine, Pickover is the author of many bestselling books on popular science topics. He lives in Yorktown Heights, New York.

Table of Contents

Preface	xii
Prelude	2	(4)
1 The Relativity of Simultaneity	6	(6)
2 Building an Einstein-Langevin Clock	12	(12)
3 The Lorentz Transformation	24	(22)
4 The Brain's Time Machine	46	(16)
5 Here-Now and Elsewhere in Spacetime	62	(26)
6 Three Important Rules for Time Travelers	88	(8)
7 Your Space or Mine?	96	(10)
8 How to Time Travel into the Future	106	(16)
9 Future Shock	122	(8)
10 Gravitational Time Dilation	130	(8)
11 Tachyons, Cosmic Moment Lines, Transcendent Infinite Speeds	138	(22)
12 Time Travel by Balloons and Strings	160	(12)
13 Can John F. Kennedy Be Saved?	172	(10)
14 Closed Timelike Curves in a Godelian Universe	182	(10)
15 Wormhole Time Machine	192	(12)
16 Adventures with Time	204	(16)
17 Rotating Cylinders and the Possibility of Global Causality Violation	220	(24)
18 Some Concluding Musings and Thoughts	244	(7)
Notes	251	(10)
References	261	(4)
Appendix 1 The Grand Internet Time-Travel Survey	265	(10)
Appendix 2 Smorgasbord for Computer Junkies	275	(6)
About the Author	281	(2)
Index	283