FREEZE!

   Last  night  I  watched  The  Outer
Limits.   For  those  of you who don't
know,  it's  an old SF series, you can
catch  it  Tuesdays  late night on Sky
One.  Anyway it was about a test pilot
who  got shot 10 seconds ahead of time
and  it slowed to a crawl.  The script
had  holes  as big as Switzerland, but
it made me think about time slowing or
stopping  problem.   You  also  might,
remember that Twilight Zone episode in
which  a woman found a stopwatch which
could  stop  the  time?   It's  a very
often  used idea in lots of movies and
series.   Well  here  are  my thoughts
about the subject...
   This is all pure speculation, since
time  by  no  means  can be stopped or
slowed,  but  let's  just  forget that
minor detail.  Ok, ok, ok!  I hear all
of you out there shouting:  What about
the  Einstein's  Theory of relativity?
Well,  here  I'm  talking  about  time
slowing   not   connected   with   the
relative  speeds  of the participants.
(More   about   relativity   in  other
articles, watch out!)
   Let's   for   example   take   that
Twilight  Zone episode.  A woman found
a  stopwatch with which she could stop
the time.  When she used it everything
stopped  and  she  was  the only thing
that moved.  Let's take a 'scientific'
approach.    Well,  logically  looking
what  should  happen  when she presses
that button?  The end of the time!  As
when she presses the button everything
would  stop  including  her,  and  she
could   never  'start  off'  the  time
again.  But, let's speculate some more
and allow that she is able to move.  A
paradox:   she  still wouldn't be able
to  move!   Why?   The  air around her
would   be   'frozen'  and  she  still
couldn't  move.   We can conclude that
such a thing as stopping of time can't
be  done,  as  you would need a gadget
possible  to  do selective 'freezing',
for example only living beeings.  That
would be quite impossible to do since,
physically  looking,  how  do you know
which  pile  of  atoms  is 'alive' and
which   is   not?    That's  a  really
interesting   problem  which  I  won't
discuss (even if I could) here.
   How about slowing the time.  If you
slowed everything, you wouldn't notice
any  change!   Of  course,  one minute
then  would  last,  for  example,  two
minutes  of  the  'normal' time but as
all watches and  everything would show
and  act  in  the  slowed time no real
change  would be done.  Here we have a
limited  problem of selective slowing,
unlike   in  total  time-stop,  if  we
allowed  that  you  can  reamin in the
'normal  time passing' mode, you would
be  able  to  move  and  act nearly as
usual.   I  said  'nearly'  as the air
around   you  would  be  'slower'  and
therefore   it   would  seem  somewhat
harder  to  move.  But, watch out!  If
you  ever find yourself in a situation
like  that,  don't  try  to  run  in a
considerably slower environment!  Why?
You  may catch fire!  How come?  Let's
say  that  you  slow  the time so that
your  one hour is one minute of slowed
time,  if you ran at speed of 20 km/h,
it  would  be  20*60= 1200 km/h in the
slowed  world.   You  would  break the
'sound  barrier'!   If  you slowed the
time to one hour - one second ratio it
would  be  72000  km/h!!!  As you, for
the slowed environment, would run fast
as  hell,  friction with the air could
make  you go out in flames.  So if you
ever,  walking  down the street, see a
human  turn  into  a  torch that means
that  he  is a 'scientist' that didn't
read the Science Corner in TOL #4.  It
serves him right!
   Well  if  you  have  some different
thoughts  about  this,  or you figured
out  a  way  to stop the time AND have
use of it (I doubt it!), let me know!


           Dr.J/PLS