# Time Travel Blues **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 24, 2013, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-blues/667043 "2013-08-24T08:40:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2013, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-blues/667043/21 "2013-08-26T15:38:50Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > By the way, how do fiction writers deal with the preservation-of-matter problem that would occur with time travel? Matter is here-and-now, and then it’s there-and-then. What’s the problem? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2013, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-blues/667043/22 "2013-08-26T16:29:54Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > Boiling won’t be much problem because the entire solar system is traveling through space on a path perpendicular to the planets rotational plane. IIRC, we’ll be about 2.25 trillion miles along the way. That’ll put you nearly 23AU behind the sun or about the distance of Uranus. > > Give me a sec. > > [Here’s a nice link](http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/03/04/vortex_motion_viral_video_showing_sun_s_motion_through_galaxy_is_wrong.html) > > The first video is a well made animation showing the path of our system through space. > > ETA: Scooped by **OldGuy** while looking for links… 🙂 Are you referring to the path of the Milky Way? Does your calculation include the velocity we retain “outward” from the oiginal Big Bang? ---
**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:** [August 26, 2013, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-blues/667043/23 "2013-08-26T21:02:02Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Are you referring to the path of the Milky Way? Does your calculation include the velocity we retain “outward” from the oiginal Big Bang? There is no “outward” from the Big Bang; the Big Bang has no center from which everything is receding. Space is expanding. Which brings up another good point: If space is expanding, what point in space maps to the point in space you are right now 6 months from now? Well, actually, there is no fixed frame of reference for space so the whole question is kind of nonsensical. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-blues/667043/24 "2013-08-27T12:05:19Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > There is no “outward” from the Big Bang; the Big Bang has no center from which everything is receding. Space is expanding. Which brings up another good point: If space is expanding, what point in space maps to the point in space you are right now 6 months from now? Well, actually, there is no fixed frame of reference for space so the whole question is kind of nonsensical. If there is no “outward”, then in what direction are we being accelerated by the mysterious so-called “dark energy”? ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-blues/667043/25 "2013-08-27T13:13:53Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > **Mods** : > But, as it turns out, I overlooked something. Although I’m in the same location in space as I was when I hit the button, the Earth is 6 months farther along in its yearly orbit . So it’s on the exact opposite side of the Sun from where I am. So I’m orbiting the Sun in vacuum and unprotected. > > What I’m wondering is how I’ll die. Maybe of embarassment? ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-blues/667043/26 "2013-08-27T13:37:04Z")
[BS] You all seem to be overlooking the point that time travel (displacement actually) is still bounded by gravity and that the subject will move with approximately the same spot as where he started. That word “approximately” is the real tricky part though as there still is a small displacement lag which can cause one to accelerate across the room or quite possibly out of their clothes. That’s why most of us departing time travelers wear helmets…and clean underwear. Glad to help, Bubba [/BS] ---
**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:** [August 28, 2013, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-blues/667043/27 "2013-08-28T00:40:06Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > If there is no “outward”, then in what direction are we being accelerated by the mysterious so-called “dark energy”? Space itself is expanding (dark energy is thought to accelerate the expansion). Things are not speeding away from some center, they are all speeding away from each other. There are imperfect analogies to try to describe this, like if you draw spots on a balloon then blow more air into it. But that’s a two-dimensional model and we live in a third dimensional universe. It’s very difficult to conceptualize in concrete terms which is why math is such a big part of physics. (I am very much the layman at this stuff.) ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-blues/667043/28 "2013-08-28T16:46:44Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > There is no “outward” from the Big Bang; the Big Bang has no center from which everything is receding. Space is expanding. Which brings up another good point: If space is expanding, what point in space maps to the point in space you are right now 6 months from now? Well, actually, there is no fixed frame of reference for space so the whole question is kind of nonsensical. Nonsense! If you go about five galactic clusters over thataway, you’ll see a big ‘Z’ axis, you should hit it about 15 trillion AUs over the (X,Y) plane. From there, the rest is easy. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-blues/667043/29 "2013-08-28T23:46:13Z")
> **[Professor Spot And The Incredibly Geeky Joke – Housepets!](https://www.housepetscomic.com/comic/2010/05/05/professor-spot-and-the-incredibly-geeky-joke/)** Professor Killbody didn’t think it’d be a problem… ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-blues/667043/30 "2013-08-29T02:03:24Z")
[http://xkcd.com/1063/](http://xkcd.com/1063/) ---
**Author:** ![Dancer\_Flight](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dancer_flight/32/7601_2.png) [@Dancer\_Flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancer_Flight)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-blues/667043/31 "2013-08-29T04:41:51Z")
Assuming you have the immediate presence of mind to hit the reverse button, you might enjoy the brief sensation of your saliva boiling on your tongue per the experience of one lucky space suit tester in 1966 mentioned [here](http://www.uh.edu/a/epi2691.htm). -DF ---
**Author:** ![mandala](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mandala/32/95_2.png) [@mandala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mandala)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-blues/667043/32 "2013-08-30T20:28:57Z")
Time and space are married to each other. Messing with one causes the other to retaliate. So when you travel through space, you are blissfully unaware that time is beating you right back - the faster you slice through space, the more time is pushing you into the abyss of the past, compared to another object moving more respectfully - slowly - through space. So if you mess with time, space will kick you around, imparting a kick in some random direction in space, so you never know where you will end up. Presumably the larger your transgression in time, the larger the kick imparted by space will be, so you might end up in the Pinwheel galaxy instead of on the earth’s orbit 6 months in the future. Coming to the OP’s question, instantaneous time travel results in death by time dilation, so that’s most likely your fate. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-blues/667043.md?page=1)