# How long should a safety rope be when travelling through a time portal? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 4, 2013, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-should-a-safety-rope-be-when-travelling-through-a-time-portal/668023 "2013-09-04T20:20:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-should-a-safety-rope-be-when-travelling-through-a-time-portal/668023/21 "2013-09-04T23:35:43Z")
All I know is it needs to made of hemp. Trust me. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-should-a-safety-rope-be-when-travelling-through-a-time-portal/668023/22 "2013-09-04T23:48:06Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > All I know is it needs to made of hemp. In that case, its gonna have to be 497 and a half feet. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2013, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-should-a-safety-rope-be-when-travelling-through-a-time-portal/668023/23 "2013-09-05T01:54:25Z")
> [@want2befree](#): > > omg he really posted in general questions? too funny! Everyone seems to be treating the question as a joke, but time travel and wormholes often seem to be discussed together [Wormhole - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormhole#Time_travel). > [@](#): > > For example, consider two clocks at both mouths both showing the date as 2000. After being taken on a trip at relativistic velocities, the accelerated mouth is brought back to the same region as the stationary mouth with the accelerated mouth’s clock reading 2004 while the stationary mouth’s clock read 2012. A traveler who entered the accelerated mouth at this moment would exit the stationary mouth when its clock also read 2004, in the same region but now eight years in the past. In reading that description, it seems like asking how long a rope the traveler would need is a reasonable question. He enters in 2012 and exits at 2004. What would happen if he had a rope tied to him as he went through the wormhole? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2013, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-should-a-safety-rope-be-when-travelling-through-a-time-portal/668023/24 "2013-09-05T04:59:18Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > In that case, its gonna have to be 497 and a half feet. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/4XFYMjkFYPg/hqdefault.jpg "Jaime Brockett - Legend of the USS Titanic (FULL)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XFYMjkFYPg) Worth every second. And seriously, if you don’t have 13 minutes to waste, why the hell are here? ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2013, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-should-a-safety-rope-be-when-travelling-through-a-time-portal/668023/25 "2013-09-05T06:12:40Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > If you take this interpretation, what do you think the world would be like that those objects would find themselves in? Think about it for a moment… If you posit that you’ve “moved on” from the point one second in the past, and are thus no longer there, then by the same logic, wouldn’t the chair you’re sitting on also no longer be there in past-world, or the room the chair is in, or the house, or the planet? _Nothing_ you’re expecting would be present. And there could be literally anything there in its place. Which makes this whole exercise completely unrecognizable as time travel, and rather just a peculiar way of describing plane shifting or dimension-hopping or whatever you choose to call it. It seems like before you throw it, it would hit you, (in the face) and you would have two of them. If you could then, not throw it, you would double your stuff. So you should throw money. ---
**Author:** ![3trew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/13edae/32.png) [@3trew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3trew)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2013, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-should-a-safety-rope-be-when-travelling-through-a-time-portal/668023/26 "2013-09-05T06:39:46Z")
Okay, lessee… we got the velocity in the direction you threw the rope, which is going back in time so we got the rotation of the earth during that time, the revolution of the earth, the movement of the whole solar system, the way this arm of the galaxy is swinging, the movement of the galaxy itself, the cluster and the supercluster, factor for the expansion of space itself, carry the three… I’ve run this 169 times, and every time I do the answer is the same: Dave Lister shows up angry, tells me to keep the smegging toaster or not but he doesn’t want it, and then he headbutts me and I lose consciousness. Do your own homework from now on. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2013, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-should-a-safety-rope-be-when-travelling-through-a-time-portal/668023/27 "2013-09-09T12:07:27Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XFYMjkFYPg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XFYMjkFYPg) > > Worth every second. And seriously, if you don’t have 13 minutes to waste, why the hell are here? OMG, that is **awesome.** Thank you for posting that link! I’ve watched/listened to that a few times since last Thursday; the song is a fantastic piece of work by itself, but the picture show really brings it to life! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-should-a-safety-rope-be-when-travelling-through-a-time-portal/668023.md?page=1)