MovieChat Forums > Timeless (2016) Discussion > It would really suck if we learned how t...

It would really suck if we learned how to time travel, but...

posted 8 years ago by snagswolf
3 replies | jump to latest

...the process kept you in the exact same spot you left from.

Since the Earth, solar system, galaxy, and universe are all in motion, pretty much any jump in time that doesn't adjust for that motion is going to land you in the middle of space.

People who live at the equator are moving about 1,000 mph due to the Earth's rotation. We are all moving about 66,000 mph around the Sun. Our solar system is moving about 43,000 mph towards the star Vega. Our galaxy is also spinning, and our solar system is traveling in a orbit within our galaxy at about 483,000 mph. And our galaxy is also moving through the universe at about 1.3 million mph.

Of course, not all of these motions are in the same direction, so our total speed isn't a sum of them all. But it's safe to say that even a very small jump in time is going to be catastrophic to the time traveler if they remain in the same spot. Non-relatively speaking, of course.

And yeah, this post is partially tongue-in-cheek. Just a different thought about the issues surrounding time travel.

[–] creatorof2002 8 years ago

its a major logistical problem time travel stories ignore.

A very long time ago I was reading one of those 1950s Weird Science comic books, I STILL love them. It was a time travel story and the scientist ADMITTED that because the Earth moves through space a bunch of complex adjustments must be made to assure that the time traveler ends up in the right spot and not out in space randomly. Exactly how those "adjustments" were made was not well explained but I was impressed that the subject was addressed AT ALL in a sci fi comic book written so long ago.

[–] AziziOthmanMY 8 years ago

and i still think time travel is stupid if you can't change anything.

[–] kevine-4 8 years ago

That's something I've always thought about, but here's the thing... while everything you mentioned could be calculated, what can't be calculated is the movement of our known universe itself since there's nothing we can observe as a reference. It could be that going back in time even a fraction of a second could put you a bazillion miles away.