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The Physics of Space, Time and Flying Saucers The Physics and Flyi Space, Flying Time Saucers A new understanding of the space-time continuum may be the key to faster-than- light space travel. understanding of time as measured by a clock, it is an outward measurement. Time related to motion. Consider a journey in an aeroplane. As the aircraft increases its velocity, an accelera- tion is felt until a constant speed is reached. Once the craft reaches a constant velocity, one can remove the seat-belt and walk around the cabin as if stationary on the ground. Only if there is turbulence, a change in the direction of motion of the plane, or a window to view passing clouds, is it realised that the plane is not stationary on the ground. The passengers and the plane have changed their velocity and, in so doing, their unit of time. All else is the same. Consider also a raft floating down a uniformly flowing river. If the river has a constant velocity, then the raft travels with the same velocity. The raft requires no motor to stay with the flow. No force is required for any floating debris to stay with the flow. The raft reaches a constant velocity and maintains it. In others words, the raft and its occupants reach a constant time change, and no force is required to maintain that time change. The river is not a force field to the raft; it is a constant velocity field, or, in time physics, a con- stant time field. The particles making up the river are all travelling at a constant time. The raft is in the field and requires no force to maintain its velocity. It may appear to an observer on the bank of the river that the raft is being carried down the river and is therefore being pushed by a force, but no force is required. Someone falling out of the raft would be carried down the river along with the raft. Rubbish thrown out of the raft would travel with the raft. If the occupants of the raft decide to stop in the flow of the river by tying up to an old tree stump, then a force is required between the stump and the raft via a rope to prevent the raft moving in the river. A force is required to stop the raft in the river so it does not keep moving with the flow. If the raft on its voyage down the river starts going over some rapids, the raft, along with the water in the river, begins to accelerate. Again, the occupants feel no force. They naturally go with the flow. Consider, now, a capsule falling freely, without air friction, towards the Earth. An observer on the Earth's surface considers the capsule to be under the influence of a force because it is accelerating at 'g' metres/sec/sec. However, an occupant of the capsule expe- riences no forces and is weightless. Any unrestrained water-bubbles in the capsule form perfect spheres and ‘float' in the capsule. Only when the occupant of the capsule looks out of the window and observes the Earth rushing up towards him does he realise he is accel- erating towards the Earth. So what is happening to the capsule and its contents? They are falling through a vari- able time field which we call the gravitational field. To say that the capsule has a force acting on it that is equal to its mass times the gravitational acceleration, as in Newtonian physics, is incorrect. The occupant feels no force. Physics formulae should satisfy both the observer and the object. In the case of the falling capsule, the occupant feels no forces on him, but the observer on the ground says there is a force because the capsule is accelerating towards him. However, it is the observer on the ground who is like an observer on the stationary raft, where the raft i to the tree stump in the flowing river and the observer is watching another raft pass by. The observer has the force acting on him, not the falling capsule, and that force is the Earth's surface acting on his feet. T= concept of time may be difficult to grasp. Although it is ciated with our by Ted Roach © 1997 Roach Industries Pty Ltd PO Box 697 Wahroonga, NSW 2076, Australia Telephone: +61 2 9489 0498 Fax: +61 2 9487 5408 Roach Industries Pty Ltd PO Box 697 Wahroonga, NSW 2076, Australia Telephone: +61 2 9489 0498 Fax: +61 2 9487 5408 NEXUS -53 TIME AND MOTION by Ted Roach © 1997 FEBRUARY - MARCH 1998