Speed of Light and Time Travel

Speed of Light and Time Travel Introduction The prospect of time travel has mystified and intrigued mankind for centuries. Time travel has been predominant in our culture and has formed the basis of a large portion of science-fiction works including H.G. Well’s â€Å"The Time Machine†. Whether they want to go back to the past to correct a mistake or journey to the future to experience the growth of mankind, everyone harbors a desire to travel in time. However, time is elusive. Everything about it is a mystery, from its existence to its workings. Even now, we are traveling into the future at a rate of one second per second. We can travel even faster by using light to our advantage. Although mankind cannot manipulate time with the current limitations in technology, time travel seems to be an almost inevitable part of the future. Einstein explains that places are moving at constant speeds relative to each other in his theory of Special Relativity. Soon after this theory was announced, scientists concluded that space and time were not really separate. They were actually part of the same entity, space-time, which is also known as the fourth dimension. And this allows us to travel through time. However, to perform a massive jump through time, the light speed barrier would need to broken. That is almost impossible with the present technology. However, new theories and hypotheses have been brought up which seem to signify that time travel could occur on a very large scale. By bending the laws of physics and light itself, we can theoretically travel in time. Indeed, theories about traveling in ultra-fast spaceships through the vast expanses of space to bending space-time have been brought up by numerous scientists. And the majority of these theories rely heavily on the use of light. The Relationship between Light and Time Light travels at a speed of 300,000 km/s. This speed, named c, is invariant. So, if we perform calculations on an object, the fixedness of c would cause other measurements to become variable (Clegg, 20). If this object starts nearing the speed of light, it would undergo massive changes, such as time distortion. In short, the object would experience time differently than an object moving at a slower speed (Jones Robbins, 281). This is known as time dilation. The effects of time dilation can be seen clearly when muons, particles with a life expectancy of 2.2 microseconds that travel at 98 percent light speed, survive their fall to Earth from an altitude of 15 km (Clegg 22). Einstein’s theories play a massive role in the understanding of time. Special Relativity proves that the time on a clock which is placed on a spaceship far from Earth passes much faster than the time observed on a clock close to the surface to Earth (Clegg 80). The other theory, General Relativity, shows that matter causes gravity and space to warp and light to curve (Jones and Robbins, 91). Gravity influences time, causing it to slow down. For example, atomic clocks situated in space gain an additional 46 microseconds every day. Experiments show that the two theories of relativity actually oppose each other (Clegg, 32). As we approach the speed of light, time beings to slow down. For instance, consider a spaceship traveling with a speed close to 150,000 kilometers per second for 10 years. It will fall behind by 2.7 years by the time it reaches Earth because it travels at half the speed of light (Clegg, 83). Moving at a speed closer to the speed of light causes an object to move forwards in time. Moving at the speed of light causes time to stop for that object (Science Channel). It is only logical for relativity to suggest that if we manage to break through the speed light barrier, time might start flowing backwards. (Clegg, 20) However, it is impossible to guarantee that after breaking the speed of light things would continue in a smooth manner as the light speed barrier is a discontinuity in reality (Clegg, 23). Breaking through the Light Speed Barrier Using fuel to power a spaceship to reach a speed even remotely close to light speed is nearly impossible. That is because the mass of the fuel grows exponentially with the speed of the rocket (Parsons, 159). The Russian scientist Tsiolkovsky found out that the maximum speed of a rocket is proportional to the speed at which it spits out its exhaust (Benson). This causes ordinary engines to travel at a very slow speed. On the other hand, an ion drive, a type of spacecraft engine, generates exhaust speeds of over 200,000 m/s. However, only a small mass of fuel is accelerated at a time, making the net acceleration very gradual. The fastest speed it can acquire is 700,000 m/s which is only 0.2 percent light speed (Parsons, 159). It is more feasible to use solar sails, a new kind of spacecraft propulsion (Parsons, 161). The sun radiates electromagnetic waves, and the pressure of this electromagnetic output powers the solar sails. They work because light energy and electromagnetic radiation is converted to kinetic energy, which is essentially motion (Clegg, 91). Scientist speculate that it can achieve a speed of 75,000,000 m/s, about 25 percent light speed, when fused with an ion drive. (Parsons, 161) However, as the ship drifts off farther into space, it becomes harder for the sun to power it for a long period of time, and this might lead to its failure (Clegg, 91). General Relativity could be used to build a ‘warp drive’ that would allow a spaceship to travel faster than light. Mexican scientist Miguel Alcubierre envisioned arranging matter in such a way that would cause the space-time behind of the ship to expand and the space-time in front of the ship to contract (Alcubierre L73). By doing this, the piece of space containing the ship and its destination would be crossed extremely fast. In order to achieve this, ‘exotic matter’, a material possessing negative pressure and mass, would be required. Unfortunately, only tiny amounts of exotic matter have been created experimentally. To produce a working warp drive, a quantity of exotic matter equal to a third of the mass of the sun would be required (Parsons 163). The Possibility of Time Travel Traveling at a speed close to the speed of light enables us to advance into the future. A brilliant example is the Twin Paradox (Clegg 83). To comprehend the Twin Paradox, it is necessary to visualize a pair of hypothetical twins first. If one journeys to space on a super-fast spaceship and then returns home after spending quite some time in space, he would find that he has aged far slower than his counterpart on Earth. By traveling at a speed close to the speed of light, he has would have effectively traveled into the future (Jones Robbins, 291). The laws of physics do not exempt the possibility of traveling faster than light (Mark 211). The warp drive does not damage any rules. Alcubierre states: â€Å"When we study special relativity we learn that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. This fact is still true in general relativity, though in this case one must be somewhat more precise: in general relativity, nothing can travel locally faster than the speed of light.† When warp drives are out of the question, scientists still think it is possible to find particles that travel faster than light, and some have already started challenging Albert Einstein’s claim that nothing can go faster than light (Padmanabha 8). Of course, that faster-than-light travel would probably violate the law of causality, or cause and effect (Mark 217), but that hasn’t stopped people from trying. Nevertheless, it would be nearly impossible for a large object to break through the light speed barrier. Einstein was the first one to show us that mass and energy were interlinked (Jones Robbins, 88). So it only goes to say that an object that is accelerating at a high speed would have to undergo an increase in mass. Therefore, a large amount of energy would be required to keep the body accelerating (Jones Robbins, 282). However, as the object would start to approach the speed of light, the energy required to keep it accelerating would keep on growing until it becomes infinite at the light speed barrier (Parsons, 162). At that speed, it would be impossible to power to any object, unless its mass is zero, of course. Conclusion The speed of light allows us to experiment with time and manipulate it to successfully travel through time. Despite the many objections raised to this subject, the number of hypotheses surrounding this field of study keeps on increasing day by day. After all, in some instances, time travel has been proved to be successful. As the world progresses and technologies become more advanced, scientists start looking for ways to use the space-time dimension to establish time travel or prove the numerous theoretical possibilities false. Paradoxes and oddities keep on surfacing at every stage, leading people to say that time travel is impossible. They ignore the fact that time travel has been accomplished and that some people have already taken tentative steps towards venturing into the future. Mankind has been in existence for a long period of time. As the human race progresses, it makes new discoveries in the field of science and technology everyday. Our conception of truth changes as time passes. The general populace sees time travel as something impossible. They believe that this only belongs to the genre of science fiction. However, beliefs tend to change. In the past, people used to find many ideas incredulous. With the passing of time, these concepts came to be accepted as facts. And today, these facts are taken as granted. Although time travel is not entirely feasible today, physics does make it theoretically possible. Maybe in the next couple of generations or so, mankind might attempt the first large-scale exploration of time. In the end, though, everything depends on time itself.

Hcs 235 Week Health Care Utilization Paper

Health Care Utilization Paper HCS/235: Health Care Delivery in the U. S. Health Care Reform The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) was designed to decrease health care costs and require health care access to all U. S. citizens. The Act has the potential for reducing the cost of health care in the United States; however, with many risks which could possibly strain the health care system, increase debt, and decrease the quality of care many are concerned. Access to Care The PPACA was enacted in 2010; however, the Act was not completely implemented right away.The health care reform has been dispersing provisions as the years progressed. Provisions such as simply investing in new resources to fight against fraud, waste, and abuse in government sponsored programs such as Medicare and Medicaid will strengthen the quality of the programs and also protect taxpayer’s money. Under the Affordable Care Act—young adults are allowed to continue in their parent s’ health insurance plans until they reach twenty –six years of age, unless the young adult has health care insurance under their own employer.In the past, medical health insurance companies have denied payments for patients who got sick. Incidents where breast cancer patients were found to have lost medical coverage from their insurance companies after diagnosed with the major disease. The Act makes this action illegal for insurance companies to rescind medical benefits. The purpose of the PPACA is to provide health care services to all Americans, whether through government programs or employer–offered health insurance plans. The Act provides small businesses and some large businesses with tax credits for providing health care benefits to their employees.Huge investments are placed into prevention. Preventing diseases and illnesses with free preventative care to individuals will impact the costs of emergency room claims from individuals who wait until their dis eases or sickness is unbearable. Emergency room claims are far more expensive than preventative care. Keeping previously uninsured individuals healthy before they join Medicare reduces the cost burdens of taxpayer dollars for uninsured patients receiving care at hospitals which go unpaid and drive the cost of health care. UtilizationUtilization management has taken a key role in the health reform act because it evaluates the need, appropriateness, and the efficiency of the health care services which will be used by the covered individual. Health insurance plans are pressured to find ways to reduce plan costs and improve the quality of care provided to their members. Utilization management efforts have reduced inappropriate services and high medical costs just by taking some time to review pre-authorizations instead of providing clinically inappropriate, out-of-network services which prevents the accurate care for patient and increases cost for plans.Today’s decision-making an d support of utilizations for members are performed in real-time. Real-time utilization achieves the decrease of unnecessary expenses and improves member’s health. Use of unnecessary services increases the cost for plans and limits them on the amount of services they can provide to members who are in dire need of them. Universal Health Care Achieving the goal of providing health care benefits for all U. S. citizens is a goal that is not new in our health care system and still lingers to be resolved by government officials.The health reform act’s provisions are stated to achieve these goals. The Medicaid expansion could possibly insure 21. 3 million Americans; however, States are given the opportunity to opt-out of the health reform Medicaid expansion. States will not be penalized for not expanding coverage to low-income individuals or families. The Medicaid expansion will provide services to low-income adults with or without dependent children, low-income children who turn nineteen years of age and classified as adults, and low-income adults with disabilities who do not qualify for Social Security Benefits.Previous States who have expended Medicaid benefits to their low-income residents have reported a decrease in uninsured residents, improved access to health care, and an increase in a healthy population. The result of States opting out of Medicaid expansion benefits will increase emergency uncompensated care for hospitals and other health care entities. The health reform act will be less effective and will drive the cost of care for the rest of the country when States opt-out of the Medicaid expansion efforts creating an imbalance within the nation. Personal ExperienceThe Medicaid expansion efforts have provided strict regulations to managed care organizations such as the one I currently work for. However, the provisions for increasing Medicaid expansion in the state of Florida will allow more residents to acquire health care benefits which eve ntually will improve the overall health of the residents in Florida and lower the costs of providing health care benefits. Utilization management has become a great asset in decreasing costs for the organization allowing for benefits to be distributed to more members who are in need of medical care.The consolidations of Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) into Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) or the Provider Service Network (PSN) will allow the members to receive services from a vast of in-network providers and achieve a higher quality of care. The transition will start taking affect August of 2013 and will continue through 2014 until the transition is complete. The not knowing how the reform affects our jobs is what is most daunting.Getting the proper facts and also communicating with your employer to get a better understanding on their action plan for the provisions of the health care reform are most encouraging. Knowing what is currently happening, what is going to happen, a nd where you will be situated at the end of the day is what matters the most—especially in this economy. Conclusion The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will help the nation to provide health care access to all U. S. citizens.The provisions in health care reform act will allow all uninsured individuals to acquire at least some type of basic health care coverage through government programs or employer–offered health insurance plans starting as early as January 2014. Small and large business employers are able to register now to provide health insurance benefits to their employees at a tax credit or some type of incentive if they have not done so already. Preventing the costly hospital claims by offering preventative care to individuals will not only save lives, but will also lower the costs of hospital bills which, unfortunately, are later paid by taxpayers.

Essay on Should Sex Education be Taken Out of Schools

From a young age, children are bombarded by images of the rich and the famous engaging in torrid public affairs or publicly discussing their increasingly active sex lives. No longer is sex education left to teachers and parents to explain, it is constantly in our faces at the forefront of our society. Regardless of sex education curriculums and debates about possible changes, children and teenagers are still learning everything they think there is to know about sex from very early on in their young lives. However, without responsible adults instructing them on the facts about sex, there are more likely to treat sex in a cavalier and offhanded fashion. According to Anna Quindlen’s essay Sex Ed, the responsibility of to education children†¦show more content†¦The former, allows teenagers to explore not only the functions of sex and reproductive organs but also sexually transmitted diseases, abortions and information on how to use condoms and other kinds of contraception . The benefit of this program is that it encourages teenagers to practice abstinence while acknowledging the fact that most teenagers will choose to engage in sex. Abstinence-only education, however, simply promotes abstinence while avoiding important topics like contraception and abortion. It also cites sexually transmitted diseases as a reason to practice abstinence without going into much deeper detail. While abstinence is ideal for teenagers, they still need to be prepared with the information they need to stay safe if they decide to engage in sexual activity. This information can not be learned from scandalized stories in tabloids but from responsible teachers and parents. Anna Quindlen also believes in the importance of sexual education in schools, â€Å"I happen to be a proponent of such programs (as sexual education); I think human sexuality is a subject for dispassionate study†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (276). Quindlen wants her sons to know everything about sex, from the mechanics of the act to its’ moral repercussions. However, she argues that there are certain facets of sex education that need to be taught at home by the parents. â€Å"†¦ I wanted to tell her that it sounded as if she was sleeping with aShow MoreRelatedThe Importance of Sex Education1217 Words   |  5 PagesWith sex being a sensitive subject for parents to discuss with their children, they believe it is not appropriate to discuss these types of delicate subjects at any age. It is not because they don’t want to inform them, but because they want to protect them. Even though they don’t know that be keeping it from them, their children are far from safety every da y. However, with today’s high birth rates at early ages, the question is no longer â€Å"should sex education be taught?† but â€Å"how sex education shouldRead MoreThe Ethical Principles Of Support Contraception1232 Words   |  5 Pagesgreater good. 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The Truth Behind Pirate Legends and Myths

With new books and movies coming out all the time, pirates have never been more popular than now. But is the iconic image of a peg-legged pirate with a treasure map and a parrot on his shoulder historically accurate? Lets sort the facts from the myths about pirates of the Golden Age of piracy, which lasted from 1700 to 1725. Pirates Buried Their Treasure Mostly myth. Some pirates did bury treasure — notably, Captain William Kidd — but it was not a common practice. Pirates wanted their share of the loot right away, and they tended to spend it quickly. Also, much of the loot collected by pirates was not in the form of silver or gold. Most of it was ordinary trade goods, such as food, lumber, cloth, animal hides, and so on. Burying these things would ruin them! They Made People Walk the Plank Myth. Why make them walk off a plank if its easier to throw them overboard? Pirates had many punishments at their disposal, including keel-hauling, marooning, dispensing lashes, and more. Some later pirates allegedly made their victims walk off a plank, but it was hardly common practice. Many Pirates Had Eye Patches and Peg Legs True. Life at sea was harsh, especially if you were in the navy or on board a pirate vessel. The battles and fighting caused many injuries, as men fought with swords, firearms, and cannons. Often, the gunners — those men in charge of the cannons — had the worst of it. An improperly-secured cannon could fly around the deck, maiming everyone near it. Other problems, such as deafness, were occupational hazards. They Lived by a Pirate â€Å"Code† True. Almost every pirate ship had a set of articles that all new pirates had to agree to. It clearly set out how the loot would be divided, who had to do what and what was expected of everyone. Pirates were often punished for fighting on board, which was strictly forbidden. Instead, pirates who had a grudge could fight all they wanted on land. Some pirate articles have survived to this day, including the pirate code of George Lowther and his crew. Crews Were All Males Myth. There were female pirates who were just as lethal and vicious as their male counterparts. Anne Bonny and Mary Read served with the colorful Calico Jack Rackham and were famous for berating him when he surrendered. Its true that female pirates were rare, but not unheard of. Pirates Often Used Colorful Phrases Mostly myth. Pirates would have spoken like any other lower-class sailors from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, or the American colonies. While their language and accent must certainly have been colorful, it bore little resemblance to what we associate with pirate language today. For that, we have to thank British actor Robert Newton, who played Long John Silver in movies and on TV in the 1950s. It was he who defined the pirate accent and popularized many of the sayings we associate with pirates today. Sources: Cordingly, David. Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life Among the Pirates. Random House Trade Paperbacks, 1996, NY. Defoe, Daniel (Captain Charles Johnson). A General History of the Pyrates. Edited by Manuel Schonhorn, Dover Publications, 1972/1999, USA. Konstam, Angus. World Atlas of Pirates. Lyons Press, 2009. Konstam, Angus. The Pirate Ship 1660-1730. Osprey, 2003, NY.