# If you could travel to the year 1820, how could you prove you were from the future? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 2, 2020, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-to-the-year-1820-how-could-you-prove-you-were-from-the-future/854931 "2020-06-02T16:03:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-to-the-year-1820-how-could-you-prove-you-were-from-the-future/854931/61 "2020-06-03T11:46:01Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Show 'em your hoverboard. You can’t take anything with you that isn’t part of your body. The only way to get a hoverboard there is to swallow it. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-to-the-year-1820-how-could-you-prove-you-were-from-the-future/854931/62 "2020-06-03T12:00:13Z")
> [@Oredigger77](#): > > I’m heading to California as soon as I can scrape together some cash and seeing if I can get to Sutter’s Mill before Sutter. It’ll still be Mexican territory so I’d try to figure out a way to claim a large chunk of it on the transition to the US. I really don’t know much history in the 1820s so my future knowledge won’t be too useful. I guess I could head up to Philadelphia and get together a company to beat Col. Drake to drilling the first oil well in 1859 but it wasn’t like oil had a ton of value when he drilled it and it lost what it had after he could produce it so easily. In a word, Spanish Land Grant. … find the family owning that area and buy that small spot off of them, you want to own a few thousand acres to start a lumber mill … > [@kk\_fusion](#): > > From the [Time Traveler’s Essentials](https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftopatoco.com%2Fproducts%2Fqw-cheatsheet&psig=AOvVaw1Vfnlc2JiNwDTTWTKqsTB5&ust=1591202437718000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAkQjhxqFwoTCNDBvKrL4-kCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAK): Knowing disease/medical conditions causes and cures are goodd - you can deal with thyroid issues with dried ground raw thyroid tissue as well. Knowing how to make pennicillin and perhaps a sulfa antibiotic would be good. Off hand I can think of a number of ‘cures’ based on herbs that actually work [colchicine for inflammations of the joints/gout, foxglove for heart conditions, jimsonweed for the scopalamine for nausea and vertigo [diziness] belladonna for convulsions and certain digestive issues. Hell, kapoectate while now a drug drug used to be kaolin clay and pectin, helping with diarrhea by glooping up the shit instead of slowing peristalsis. > [@Xema](#): > > Though probably less common 200 years ago, it’s never been extremely rare to to encounter people whose mannerisms speech, etc. seem unusual. When this happens, the natural human assumption has always been that they are from a different place, not a different time. America and England, 2 countries separated by a common tongue =) > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I think you’re going the opposite way and overestimating science in 1820. This was an entire generation before Semmelweis tried to convince other doctors of the antiseptic theory and they refused to listen to him. And Semmelweis was a doctor from a recognized university and he had data he had gathered from his medical practice to back his theory up. You could simply open a ‘hospital’ [though they were more what we now think of as convalescent homes with a little light surgery - places that took patients that were sicker than people were willing to tend to at home. Though it was the time of the ‘house call’ style of medicine] You could practice good sanitation, nutrition, and use such treatments as are known to work that you have access to. You could even covertly innoculate for smallpox. To be honest, most illnesses are treated by support and hygene - febrifuges to keep the body from overheating [with cold water compresses to help] - willow bark was known as a febrifuge [aspirin] foxglove/digitalis for angina, colchicine for gout and arthritis, jimsonweed/datura for the scopalamine, there are a fair number of natural medications that work to support. Certain things would be an issue - tuberculosis was a major major major disease, killing a vast number of people, you would have to learn to culture [streptomycin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streptomycin#:~:text=Streptomycin%20is%20an%20aminoglycoside.,in%201943%20from%20Streptomyces%20griseus.) from the dirt … and penicillin from mold, the first of the sulfas was about 120 years in the future, based on coal dye - but just understanding disease would go a long way to helping. ---
**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:** [June 3, 2020, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-to-the-year-1820-how-could-you-prove-you-were-from-the-future/854931/63 "2020-06-03T12:21:24Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > I wonder how far you could get if you folded up and threw a a paper airplane in front of the right people? > > . Stay away from those damn dirty apes, Taylor ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-to-the-year-1820-how-could-you-prove-you-were-from-the-future/854931/64 "2020-06-03T12:45:33Z")
> [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > (Miasma theory _was_ still the dominant paradigm, though, and you might be able to advance medical science several decades if you could offer convincing evidence that people should be paying attention to bacteria instead – but you would need enough background knowledge to pull off a demonstration that could provide that evidence, which is the hard part.) It would depend on there being an outbreak of cholera somewhere, but it doesn’t take a great deal of specialist background knowledge to say to them “Map the cases in an area and check where they get their water from. Then block that supply - take the handle off the pump; and bring in water supplies from somewhere where there is no outbreak. The number of cases in the affected area will drop. If you don’t believe me, wait 30 years or so and see what happens in Soho.” Another example would be to look at infection rates in hospitals, and telling surgeons to wash down the operating theatre with carbolic acid and use a clean apron for every operation. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-to-the-year-1820-how-could-you-prove-you-were-from-the-future/854931/65 "2020-06-03T12:56:00Z")
If I could get in touch with a prominent physicist of the time, I have no doubt I’d be able to convince him that my knowledge of physics was far more advanced than his. But this depends on finding a prominent physicist, which would be hampered by the fact that I can’t even remember who the prominent physicists of that year even were. I think that’s about when Maxwell was being born… Faraday, maybe? Oh, and I think Gauss, too, but he’s probably no good for this purpose, because he was too arrogant to recognize _anyone_ as knowing more than him… Maybe he’d soften up if I told him just how many discoveries my era credited to him? ---
**Author:** ![Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-to-the-year-1820-how-could-you-prove-you-were-from-the-future/854931/66 "2020-06-03T13:39:36Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > If I could get in touch with a prominent physicist of the time, I have no doubt I’d be able to convince him that my knowledge of physics was far more advanced than his. But this depends on finding a prominent physicist, which would be hampered by the fact that I can’t even remember who the prominent physicists of that year even were. But physicists even then published papers and met together at physical societies. Some worked at universities. So try to attend a physics society meeting. If you’re near a university, go speak with a science professor and play six degrees of separation. If you’re not, go see if a librarian can help you find some recent physics papers and then write to whoever wrote them. Even better if you recognize their names. One tricky social issue - would you try to predict the outcome of ongoing research by any of the physicists you contact? Some might not like feeling they are about to be bested by a competitor. Some might resist accepting an idea that they didn’t cook up. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-to-the-year-1820-how-could-you-prove-you-were-from-the-future/854931/67 "2020-06-03T13:48:58Z")
I think a knowledge of modern chemistry would be more convincing than a knowledge of modern physics. I would cart around bottles of crude oil to the top chemists of the time and tell them “the future is plastics!” ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-to-the-year-1820-how-could-you-prove-you-were-from-the-future/854931/68 "2020-06-03T13:50:35Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > If you happened to know the magic formula for Portland cement, all readily available at that time, its superiority could have been quickly shown. The magic formula is heat up rocks. It’s more a process than a formula. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-to-the-year-1820-how-could-you-prove-you-were-from-the-future/854931/69 "2020-06-03T13:56:10Z")
If a person who has no friends, no money, wearing an ill-fitting set of leftover clothes and comes up to you talking semi-intelligibly about how they know the future or the secrets of advanced science, do you generally think ‘wow, this must be a time traveler from the future’ or ‘wow, this must be a crazy person?’ If you are a time traveler using only your own knowledge, I think you’re going to have a really hard time being taken as anything other than an annoyance, especially if you’re not a white male (or the equivalent for non-US cultures). All of the ‘look at my scientific knowledge’ type proofs run into the problem that people might just not believe you; look at how long it took for a variety of scientific theories to gain widespread acceptance without any ‘I’m from the future’ mixed in - even today, not everyone even believes vaccienes are effective. OTOH, I don’t see why you’d want to convince people that you’re from the future. It seems like you’d be generally better off pretending to be a psychic or prophet of some sort, or using your future knowledge to pull off scams, schemes, or outright crimes. Get in on the gold rush, win some bets on unlikely events, start a cult, rob a train because you know when it’s going to break down and you’re going to be pretty well off. It’s not like people are going to just say ‘you’re from the future, we must do what you say’ - they might well say 'wow, you future people sure are degenerates, we need to preserve our way of life!. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-to-the-year-1820-how-could-you-prove-you-were-from-the-future/854931/70 "2020-06-03T14:00:13Z")
Dup ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-to-the-year-1820-how-could-you-prove-you-were-from-the-future/854931/71 "2020-06-03T14:10:22Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > If I could get in touch with a prominent physicist of the time, I have no doubt I’d be able to convince him that my knowledge of physics was far more advanced than his. But this depends on finding a prominent physicist, which would be hampered by the fact that I can’t even remember who the prominent physicists of that year even were. … This gets back to my previous suggestion, that you contact scientists and such, and offer theories that explain gaps in current knowledge. I am not a scientist, but I do read a lot, and topics such as the Royal Society, Darwin, and the development of modern science have long been an area of my highest interest. My clear impression is that “science” was far from a closed society. I’m often amused and amazed at discoveries that were offered by churchmen, doctors, and other non-“scientists.” Access could be had at meetings, lectures, and via mail. A dedicated person could surely find SOMEONE who would listen to serious and persistent attempts. Heck - start publishing about speciation in the Galapagos or the East Indies - tho it would take some time for folk to confirm/expand upon your predictions, it would be pretty significant if you were able to advance scientific knowledge based on evidence from somewhere there is no record of you having been. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-to-the-year-1820-how-could-you-prove-you-were-from-the-future/854931/72 "2020-06-03T14:23:33Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > If a person who has no friends, no money, wearing an ill-fitting set of leftover clothes and comes up to you talking semi-intelligibly about how they know the future or the secrets of advanced science, do you generally think ‘wow, this must be a time traveler from the future’ or ‘wow, this must be a crazy person?’ If you are a time traveler using only your own knowledge, I think you’re going to have a really hard time being taken as anything other than an annoyance, especially if you’re not a white male (or the equivalent for non-US cultures). All of the ‘look at my scientific knowledge’ type proofs run into the problem that people might just not believe you; look at how long it took for a variety of scientific theories to gain widespread acceptance without any ‘I’m from the future’ mixed in - even today, not everyone even believes vaccienes are effective. > > OTOH, I don’t see why you’d want to convince people that you’re from the future. It seems like you’d be generally better off pretending to be a psychic or prophet of some sort, or using your future knowledge to pull off scams, schemes, or outright crimes. Get in on the gold rush, win some bets on unlikely events, start a cult, rob a train because you know when it’s going to break down and you’re going to be pretty well off. It’s not like people are going to just say ‘you’re from the future, we must do what you say’ - they might well say 'wow, you future people sure are degenerates, we need to preserve our way of life!. It is going to be very tough to convince anybody you are from the future no matter what you do. So yes, why bother trying to convince anyone, just take the credit for inventing or divining your knowledge. Perhaps when you are rich industrialist or famous scientist have some units of measurement or elements named after you then maybe a few people will believe you are from the future if you claim to be, but more likely they’ll think you’re just messing with them or you’ve lost your mind. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-to-the-year-1820-how-could-you-prove-you-were-from-the-future/854931/73 "2020-06-03T14:53:55Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > If a person who has no friends, no money, wearing an ill-fitting set of leftover clothes and comes up to you talking semi-intelligibly about how they know the future or the secrets of advanced science, do you generally think ‘wow, this must be a time traveler from the future’ or ‘wow, this must be a crazy person?’ From what I’ve read, you do _not_ want to end up in a mental hospital of that time. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-to-the-year-1820-how-could-you-prove-you-were-from-the-future/854931/74 "2020-06-03T14:58:06Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > The problem with these tricks like predicting the future is that they take far too long. When challenged by a large crowd of hostile people from another century, you need some tricks or tactics that work more or less instantly on the spot. The OP is sort of underspecified on exactly who or how long you have to prove you were from the future, but if we frame it as “what can you say to a large crowd of hostile people to prove you’re from the future”, there is no solution. _Nothing_ you can say in that circumstance will come across as anything other than crazy person, charlatan, or person taking the piss. I’m skeptical that you can get there with predictions of events, either. It’s unlikely you have specific enough knowledge to make good detailed predictions in the near term. The way to get there is science and engineering. You don’t have to remember _that_ much about how basic machines work to _dramatically_ advance current art. And these predictions and machines can be tested and demonstrated. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-to-the-year-1820-how-could-you-prove-you-were-from-the-future/854931/75 "2020-06-03T15:26:32Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > If I could get in touch with a prominent physicist of the time, I have no doubt I’d be able to convince him that my knowledge of physics was far more advanced than his. But this depends on finding a prominent physicist, which would be hampered by the fact that I can’t even remember who the prominent physicists of that year even were. I think that’s about when Maxwell was being born… Faraday, maybe? Oh, and I think Gauss, too, but he’s probably no good for this purpose, because he was too arrogant to recognize _anyone_ as knowing more than him… Maybe he’d soften up if I told him just how many discoveries my era credited to him? Faraday would be the guy I’d go to in 1820, particularly if I had to convince someone in a hurry. There was, I think just enough know, but still so much unknown, about electricity and magnetism at the time that I think I could reasonably come out of a friendly interrogation by Faraday looking pretty good. Given a longer timescale, I like the idea someone proposed of demonstrating one’s superior immune system (although they might just think you’d acquired immunity the natural way) or, better yet, outlining the germ theory of disease. See, I figure convincing Faraday I’m not a total loon would at least get my foot in the door to some scientific circles, and then maybe I could convince a member of the Royal Society in the UK to conduct some studies based on “my” germ theory of disease. The trick would be mating what I “know” with what someone—either me or an expert in the field at the time—could “prove” given they are willing to follow my lead. I mean, I can say a lot about radiation and fission and whatnot, but I’m not sure what I could do with that info in 1820. But then if I were given the ear of scientific circles, it might just turn out that some of my blathering is in fact within the realm of possibility for the foremost expert of the time to devise an experiment to investigate, they just didn’t have the idea to do so yet. If I were a real physicist and had Einstein’s theories down pat, for instance, I might propose the solution to the problem of the precession of Mercury, which apparently was not fully recognized as being at odds with Newtonian physics until later in the 19th century, but a quick look at the wiki suggests may have been detectable based on historical data if someone had looked closely at it. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-to-the-year-1820-how-could-you-prove-you-were-from-the-future/854931/76 "2020-06-03T15:54:15Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > The way to get there is science and engineering. You don’t have to remember _that_ much about how basic machines work to _dramatically_ advance current art. And these predictions and machines can be tested and demonstrated. People say stuff like this, but don’t ever provide details. What improvements on basic machines are you going to propose in 1820? You’re saying you don’t have to remember that much, so it should be something you can quickly point out. I’m not aware of any ‘trick’ improvements you could quickly apply to machinery at the time - most of the big advances weren’t of the ‘here’s an idea’ type, they involved things like improved machining and metallurgy that allowed you to make higher quality materials and better-fitting parts. You also run into the problem that cutting edge machines are going to be expensive and time-consuming to make - but it’s pretty rare for people to spend lots of money and effort because some weirdo who talks funny, dresses badly, has no contacts or credentials, and keeps being rude makes outlandish claims. This, like most schemes, only seems likely to work if you’ve already convinced people that you are not crazy and have access to special knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-to-the-year-1820-how-could-you-prove-you-were-from-the-future/854931/77 "2020-06-03T15:54:20Z")
The problem with using the precession of Mercury is that, even if you know all of the math involved, the calculation is a heck of a lot of hard grunt work. I might be able to talk a great mind into spending five minute scribbling some equations on a napkin, but I’m not going to be able to talk them into devoting a full research team to spending months on the calculation. At least, not until after I’ve already convinced them that I have access to scientific information that no human of that time should have. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-to-the-year-1820-how-could-you-prove-you-were-from-the-future/854931/78 "2020-06-03T15:54:26Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > As for Drake…don’t beat him to it. Take the money you’ve conned from all the rich of the day and buy the leases when the market collapses a few years later. Sure, but that is a relatively long way in the future from 1820. The well wasn’t drilled until 1859 and the collapse the following year so I’ve got to wait 40 years. in the mean time I’d miss '49. Maybe its an idea for what to do with the fortune I make in California. > [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > I suppose it depends on where you were when you Marty McFly-ed yourself back to the past, but if you’re anywhere on the East Coast, you don’t need to go so far - just head to Dahlonega, Georgia, site of the 1828 [Georgia gold rush.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Gold_Rush) Easier to find, too - absent modern maps and GPS, are you certain you’d be able to locate the Sutter’s property on what wasn’t then named the American River? Whereas Dahlonega was a small but settled town in the 1820s. I know a lot more about Sutter than I do the Georgia Gold rush. Actually, I’d never heard of the Georgia one. I know Colorado and California mining history but I don’t want to go to Colorado until 1858. I could pick out where Sutter’s mill would be on a map and follow aruvquan idea. > [@aruvqan](#): > > In a word, Spanish Land Grant. … find the family owning that area and buy that small spot off of them, you want to own a few thousand acres to start a lumber mill … I also figured out how I could make the seed money I need for California. The[Cofey still](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Column_still)was invented in 1830. I could easily fabricate one with 1820s technology and I could even bang together a decent wooden one based on a[three chamber still](https://www.bostonapothecary.com/is-it-on-the-test-the-three-chambered-still/). Making high proof booze fast has always been desirable and should be an easy enough way to get rich realtivly quick. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-to-the-year-1820-how-could-you-prove-you-were-from-the-future/854931/79 "2020-06-03T16:07:42Z")
As so often in these hypotheticals, my answer is “guncotton” - all the reagents are available, and the result has immediate clear benefits any smart person of the day would appreciate. Then to take the profits and invest in expeditions to lots of even more profitable places… > [@jtur88](#): > > Then, a pair of shoes were identical. I’d explain using two different lasts, to make left and right shoes to fit. This is about 20 years \*after \*left & right shoes started returning (the identical shoe thing only being a 200 year blip). ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-to-the-year-1820-how-could-you-prove-you-were-from-the-future/854931/80 "2020-06-03T16:31:08Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The problem with using the precession of Mercury is that, even if you know all of the math involved, the calculation is a heck of a lot of hard grunt work. I might be able to talk a great mind into spending five minute scribbling some equations on a napkin, but I’m not going to be able to talk them into devoting a full research team to spending months on the calculation. At least, not until after I’ve already convinced them that I have access to scientific information that no human of that time should have. See, that’s where the sit down with Faraday comes in. It’s like the audition where you wow them with your understanding of the emerging field of electricity and magnetism, and then set them up for the knockout punch by proposing a means to (1) observe how Newtonian physics fails to fully explain observable phenomena, and (2) propose a testable and falsifiable alternative. Yes, it may take months, but in 75 years when they start awarding Nobel prizes, they’ll be at the head of the line to receive the very first, just standing on your shoulders! Because, I mean, various teams of scientists spent at least a couple years trying to observe gravitational lensing during an eclipse in response to Einstein’s historical theories, right? It’s not that far out if he realm of possibility for someone opens months attempting to prove or disprove a cutting edge scientific theory, provided you have indeed demonstrated your credibility, your bina fides, in other areas. So: Step 1) Chat it up with Faraday. Step 2) Get introductions to the Royal Institution. Step 3) Propose that data available on the orbit of Mercury already calls into question Newtonian physics (and they can verify this for themselves, even though no one has yet) and then propose an alternative which, given a few months or years, they can prove, and then brag about it to all their friends, and maybe knock that arrogant \*Faraday chap down a peg or two. Science! \*ETA: Obviously, you would censor this part of the plan from your earlier discussions with Faraday. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-to-the-year-1820-how-could-you-prove-you-were-from-the-future/854931.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-to-the-year-1820-how-could-you-prove-you-were-from-the-future/854931.md?page=5)