Declaration: I am attempting to write about a subject I have not studied in depth nor have any inclination to research and hence to a mind trained in theoretical physics this attempt might seem focusing on the trivial and missing the point. I am merely using information readily available on the internet and basic knowledge of human metabolism to base my premise. I am open to criticism and willing to debate any point of view contrary to mine.
It was 4 am on 24th November 2014 and I was still awake reading through articles of Wikipedia as well as other sources on the 5 dimensional world. Interstellar – the movie had intrigued me and bowled me over. I wanted to read up on certain aspects of it and the actual science on which certain facts of the movie were based. Now, I do understand that movie script writers use cinematic liberty to build a premise of their choice and I am not planning to step on their toes; however, despite loving the film and the stellar performances by the lead actors a few aspects somehow didn’t hit me right. I am merely attempting to put things in perspective so that anyone who had queries similar to mine could find a few answers here and possibly appreciate the movie better.
For starters, I did not know of a worm hole or the 5 dimensional world – as depicted in the movie. Let me try and elaborate on these terms so that the story can be appreciated better. Worm hole is basically used for time travel (along the same lines as on earth). Assume 2 people are travelling from point A to Point B on earth. One is travelling by foot while other travels by an airplane. The person travelling by airplane is actually using accelerated velocity mouth of a worm hole to get to the other point quicker than the normal travel and by expending lesser energy. Even though the example is rudimentary, it makes a limited point of time travel. Worm holes never take you back in time because we are still operating in 4 dimensional spaces where time moves only in forward direction. The distance in space is measured in light years (distance travelling by light in one year @ 300,000 km /sec) and worm hole simply saves us a few light years of travel exactly like an airplane travel as compared to travel by foot. In the movie, Interstellar, the actors go into the accelerated mouth of a worm hole to travel to a galaxy far far away in a few hours.
The second bit that intrigued me was the 5 dimensional world. Unlike anything we know in the four dimensional world, a 5 dimensional world allows you to go back in time. Basically, it is not an actual world but a theoretical concept (or spiritual) that makes it possible to travel back and forth in time rendering the time like a physical dimension. Theoretically, this means that people living in 5 dimensional world can go back in time and face the same events again and use their retrospective knowledge (or hind sight) to deal with it better because they have already dealt with it before. Like let us suppose we could go back in time and avoid the world wars by not allowing the triggers to escalate because now we know that it would result in devastation. 5 dimensional world has a spiritual side as well. If you meditate on your problems had enough, your mind activates energy centers within your brain which helps you identify any unresolved issues of your past hidden in your subconscious mind and resolve them therein alleviating your problems. In essence you have literally travelled back in time to change events of your life. It is also said that a fully active mind can even recall events of past life and help resolve any unresolved issues. In practicality however, we continue to live in a four dimensional world where we cannot go back in time. The point to remember is 5 dimensional world do not reverse the physical state of body, it merely allows you to travel in your present form to revisit events of the past. In the movie Interstellar, Coop uses 5 dimensional world to travel back in time to send a message to his daughter, Murphy on the solution to the problem she was facing to execute what the film terms as “Plan A”. You will observe that Coop does not become younger; he has merely travelled back in time to send a message.
The final bit of the movie and the only bit I could not agree with was the climax where Coop meets his daughter Murphy who is on death bed aged 90 odd years while Coop himself is still young and dashing even at his 124 years age. This is a false notion that is shown perpetually in most sci-fi movies attempting to depict time-space relativity. The time – space relativity governs the relative time elapse on earth vis-a-vis any other place in space. Due to variance of effect of Sun’s gravity and relative speed on rotation of planet, each planet has differing cycles of day (sunlight) and night (dark) ; likewise due to varying distance from sun there is difference in time taken to revolve around the sun (number of days in a year). These effects of time-space relativity can be used to depict that we will have longer days and night and each year may have many more days (when compared to earth) but this does not mean the elapse of time is slower. Imagine having 2 watches, one faulty that moves the second hand every 10 seconds while the other normal. For every 10 hours on the normal watch, the faulty watch would show only one hour, but the time elapsed would be same in both cases. Meaning a day on Jupiter maybe 5 hours as compared to 12 hours on Earth but that does not mean 5 hours is equal to 12 hours, it just means Jupiter rotates many more times than earth in any given time duration. Likewise, because Jupiter takes 12 years (earth time) to complete one revolution around the sun, it does not mean that an astronaut who has landed on Jupiter ages by one year after every 12 years. This is a fallacy because the time elapse is the same and time elapse is not measured by solar clock or seasons (refer atomic clock). The movie Interstellar, on more than one occasion shows Coop telling his daughter Murphy that they would be of same age when he return from his space trip and in the climax a 124 year old Coop has not aged physically while his daughter is old and frail seems more fantasy than reality. Time elapse and human metabolism are linked and human beings age due to metabolism and time elapse and not due to time-space relativity. I assume the writer has used this false notion liberally in the movie to help average viewer appreciate time-space relativity by means of human aging.
Please go watch the movie Interstellar. Amazing screenplay, good performance and the relative slow pace helps viewers grasp the concepts of theoretical physics and adapting to the science jargon. Highly recommended.
So long…
It was 4 am on 24th November 2014 and I was still awake reading through articles of Wikipedia as well as other sources on the 5 dimensional world. Interstellar – the movie had intrigued me and bowled me over. I wanted to read up on certain aspects of it and the actual science on which certain facts of the movie were based. Now, I do understand that movie script writers use cinematic liberty to build a premise of their choice and I am not planning to step on their toes; however, despite loving the film and the stellar performances by the lead actors a few aspects somehow didn’t hit me right. I am merely attempting to put things in perspective so that anyone who had queries similar to mine could find a few answers here and possibly appreciate the movie better.
For starters, I did not know of a worm hole or the 5 dimensional world – as depicted in the movie. Let me try and elaborate on these terms so that the story can be appreciated better. Worm hole is basically used for time travel (along the same lines as on earth). Assume 2 people are travelling from point A to Point B on earth. One is travelling by foot while other travels by an airplane. The person travelling by airplane is actually using accelerated velocity mouth of a worm hole to get to the other point quicker than the normal travel and by expending lesser energy. Even though the example is rudimentary, it makes a limited point of time travel. Worm holes never take you back in time because we are still operating in 4 dimensional spaces where time moves only in forward direction. The distance in space is measured in light years (distance travelling by light in one year @ 300,000 km /sec) and worm hole simply saves us a few light years of travel exactly like an airplane travel as compared to travel by foot. In the movie, Interstellar, the actors go into the accelerated mouth of a worm hole to travel to a galaxy far far away in a few hours.
The second bit that intrigued me was the 5 dimensional world. Unlike anything we know in the four dimensional world, a 5 dimensional world allows you to go back in time. Basically, it is not an actual world but a theoretical concept (or spiritual) that makes it possible to travel back and forth in time rendering the time like a physical dimension. Theoretically, this means that people living in 5 dimensional world can go back in time and face the same events again and use their retrospective knowledge (or hind sight) to deal with it better because they have already dealt with it before. Like let us suppose we could go back in time and avoid the world wars by not allowing the triggers to escalate because now we know that it would result in devastation. 5 dimensional world has a spiritual side as well. If you meditate on your problems had enough, your mind activates energy centers within your brain which helps you identify any unresolved issues of your past hidden in your subconscious mind and resolve them therein alleviating your problems. In essence you have literally travelled back in time to change events of your life. It is also said that a fully active mind can even recall events of past life and help resolve any unresolved issues. In practicality however, we continue to live in a four dimensional world where we cannot go back in time. The point to remember is 5 dimensional world do not reverse the physical state of body, it merely allows you to travel in your present form to revisit events of the past. In the movie Interstellar, Coop uses 5 dimensional world to travel back in time to send a message to his daughter, Murphy on the solution to the problem she was facing to execute what the film terms as “Plan A”. You will observe that Coop does not become younger; he has merely travelled back in time to send a message.
The final bit of the movie and the only bit I could not agree with was the climax where Coop meets his daughter Murphy who is on death bed aged 90 odd years while Coop himself is still young and dashing even at his 124 years age. This is a false notion that is shown perpetually in most sci-fi movies attempting to depict time-space relativity. The time – space relativity governs the relative time elapse on earth vis-a-vis any other place in space. Due to variance of effect of Sun’s gravity and relative speed on rotation of planet, each planet has differing cycles of day (sunlight) and night (dark) ; likewise due to varying distance from sun there is difference in time taken to revolve around the sun (number of days in a year). These effects of time-space relativity can be used to depict that we will have longer days and night and each year may have many more days (when compared to earth) but this does not mean the elapse of time is slower. Imagine having 2 watches, one faulty that moves the second hand every 10 seconds while the other normal. For every 10 hours on the normal watch, the faulty watch would show only one hour, but the time elapsed would be same in both cases. Meaning a day on Jupiter maybe 5 hours as compared to 12 hours on Earth but that does not mean 5 hours is equal to 12 hours, it just means Jupiter rotates many more times than earth in any given time duration. Likewise, because Jupiter takes 12 years (earth time) to complete one revolution around the sun, it does not mean that an astronaut who has landed on Jupiter ages by one year after every 12 years. This is a fallacy because the time elapse is the same and time elapse is not measured by solar clock or seasons (refer atomic clock). The movie Interstellar, on more than one occasion shows Coop telling his daughter Murphy that they would be of same age when he return from his space trip and in the climax a 124 year old Coop has not aged physically while his daughter is old and frail seems more fantasy than reality. Time elapse and human metabolism are linked and human beings age due to metabolism and time elapse and not due to time-space relativity. I assume the writer has used this false notion liberally in the movie to help average viewer appreciate time-space relativity by means of human aging.
Please go watch the movie Interstellar. Amazing screenplay, good performance and the relative slow pace helps viewers grasp the concepts of theoretical physics and adapting to the science jargon. Highly recommended.
So long…
1 comment:
U haven't updated ur blogs in a long time :/
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