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Time distortions
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Well, depends on how effective this time stopping thing is and how deep it goes.If all time stopped around me, I imagine it would be a lot like I'm in a frozen hell where nothing ever changes. Everything remains exactly and precisely the same. It would be terrifying.
It goes deep.For things with mass: Time is stopped down to the molecule. Not just slowed (like the movie Clockstoppers).
Physics: If you pick something up and let it go, it doesn't fall. Gravity is 'halted' in a way, but because the planet isn't spinning you're not thrown off.
Okay, I think I'm following. I just want to clarify a few things, so bear with me here :)Time, being the fourth dimension, doesn't exist. The lovely Einstein established that. Time doesn't move, we move through time. So, time only exists when we move. Therefore! Yeah I'm getting deep. It's not time that stops, it's movement that stops.
So... if I have the right idea, I think, if everything and everyone stopped moving, all organic matter would probably shrivel up and fall apart like sand. But that would take a very long time, hundreds of years at least. Movement would speed up things like aging.
That's plenty deep actually. Movement stopping falls under everything down to the molecule, so we're on the same page essentially. I like to use the terms "time" and "stopped" because I think people relate easier to that rather than "what happens if all molecules stop moving?":D
That sounds like an interesting idea. The cohesion of everything just sort of falling apart. I'm trying to visualize that now.
Well, truth be told, most people wouldn't know what the hell I'm talking about lol So you might as well say time, it's easier. I just wanted to make sure I had the right idea :)I think you could do a lot with that idea. I immediately pictured pyramids dissolving in a desert.
I have this idea about the way light would react. With everything suspended, light beams/waves/particles would just stay in place until moved or absorbed by the person not affected by this problem.The result of moving through and/or absorbing the light rays would be two things.
The first would be a 3D shadow in the place that you just were because light isn't flooding to fill that space you were occupying. But beyond the shadow you could still see things illuminated by light not yet moved or absorbed.
The second thing would be, too much movement through sunlight would still result in a sunburn.
If light particles suspended in space, then light would be constant, would it not? I would think it's shadows that disappeared, rendering everything as one-dimensional.
Hey, I didn't want you to think I abandoned this discussion, but it's time for me to sign off for the night. Because time hasn't stopped yet lol I'll continue this tomorrow. :)
No worries. Food for thought when you get up.I think we're pretty close to the same page. Seeing beyond the "3D shadow" that your body has left behind would look like something that might be a painting and therefore it would seem one-dimensional because there's a void of light between you and the world beyond.
This might come out confusing: Air would be different too. Breathe in and you inhale the air right near you, creating simulated movement until you stop inhaling. Stay in one spot for too long and you eventually exhaust your lung's ability to draw fresh air from around you. The air gets "thinner" as you're left with more and more carbon dioxide in that location.
If light isn't moving..,do you have to keep moving to see?
The way I see it, no.With light suspended, it's in the same position and therefore everything that was previously illuminated (from dust particles, buildings, water, etc) is still illuminated. However by moving light particles or absorbing them by walking through, it would create a void that you can see through when you turned around.
Think like space. If you were in space looking down, you'd still able to see the planet illuminated. I think it would be a very odd visual effect no doubt.
As I see it, if everything else stopped you'd be instantly frozen, blind or both.Heat is just the movement of atoms, so if the atoms and molecules around you stopped moving they would instantly be at absolute zero Kelvin. Either you would instantly freeze and any momentum you retained would shatter you like glass or, if you did manage to retain your heat, anything you touched would be hugely affected by the relative speed of collision. To them it would be like being hit by something going faster than the speed of light.
As for light, it can be treated as a particle but in this situation it would be better to think of it as a ray or beam. The light comes down from the sun, hits an object where some of it is absorbed, then is reflected into your eye. If we assume these rays become affected by time when they hit your eye they will then hit the back but new ones will only come into your eyes at the speed that you can move. That probably wouldn't be enough for your eye to pick up
If, on the other hand, even light rays that have entered through your eyes aren't affected by time then you have the problem that the light in your eyes wouldn't move away. Either your eyes would only be exposed to one image and would stop working through problems with the nerves that scientists have discovered recently or the light would build up at the back of your eyes and blind you.
I've thought about this way too much.
It's definitely interesting science fiction :)If air particles stopped moving, I'm guessing one out of two possibilities. Suffucate and die from carbon monoxide poisoning, or overdose on oxygen. Either way, it wouldn't be pretty.
I think we've come to the consensus that it wouldn't end well. :-P
I'm utterly lost. Virginia... you're British right? Remember that kids programme with the pocket watch? I'm guessing deeper is meant here?
Bernard's Watch. I'm just thinking far too much about the physics of this would actually work. That's why I suck at writing fantasy. :-/
Sci-fi, and I'm not very good at it myself lolStill, it's a neat idea. In theory, if all movement stopped, all time would stop, and everything would crumble.
Bernard's watch...that's it! I couldn't write fantasy either...I'd get too caught up in theories and possibilities x
There's no thinking too much on this particular subject, I promise you. I've dedicated weeks to it because it's a topic in my current works. Despite its short stint in my series, it's the most difficult piece of science fiction I've written yet, one because it's all speculative and two because I'm trying to convey what I think would happen from a first person perspective by a character with no previous encounters of such phenomenon.Virginia, I think you're right about heat loss in a way, but my idea is on a different scale. Even though things have stopped, if heat isn't dissipating because it's stopped too (heat being a form of energy and energy has been stopped), the only place that would become cold would be the void areas created by displacing everything in a specific space (such as walking and moving the air particles from the area. Everything else would retain the heat it had at that particular moment when things stopped. That void spot would get cold the moment you left that space because there's nothing there.
I do have to resolve the light in the eyes issue though. I'll have to think on that one. Scientifically explain it or the magic "because it's now within him, it accelerates back to normal". Very much worth a bit of thinking.
What about quantum physics instead of particle science. In quantum physics, energery is neither created or destroyed. It simply changes form.
Elaborate on this idea of 'instead'? I understand the concept of energy being neither created nor destroyed, but I'm unsure of what you mean in relation to the topic. :D
Heat is still a problem. Heat is the motion of molecules - if they stop, then there remains no attractions between atoms because electrons aren't moving. Our protagonist would freeze to death, as his molecules SLAM into the immovable ones of his universe. Even if there is a "bubble" of normal time, the molecules in that bubble would either escape or slam into other, frozen molecules, sapping the energy from the body.
Basically, you're going to end up picking the ideas that suit you because, you know, we've never seen this happen. :-)
Thomas, late reply, sorry. I was referring to what you said about heat being a form of energy. If energy would stop moving, using quantum physics, it doesn't stop, it would only change form.This is all theoretical fiction of course lol
Lily wrote: "Thomas, late reply, sorry. I was referring to what you said about heat being a form of energy. If energy would stop moving, using quantum physics, it doesn't stop, it would only change form."That leaves us with the problem of momentum. The momentum in the atoms is mostly the same as the momentum in the big objects. When you get to quantum physics sh*t gets crazy, but it still applies...
Thomas' idea is that momentum, or time to make it easier, stops. I'm offereing a theory, that could be shown in fiction, as opposed to shutting down the activity of all particles, atoms, etc, things just... change form.Now I don't even know if I'm making sense anymore...
Lol. It's all good. Virginia, you're right I already have picked the ideas I like the most. I just thought this might be a good exercise, and it's helping keep my motivation to edit.Lily, I think that might be diving too far in for me at the moment. Haha. I'm wondering how that would even look.
lol Fair enough, it's your idea, do what you want ;)
I like the visuals in that M.S.I picture these things happening and they seem like they would fit into some Monty Python skit somewhere.
lol I was thining Monty Python at one point in this discussion.But you can't kill me! You have no legs, and time has stopped.
The other one would be Hitchhiker's Guide style."Achoo!"
Narrator: "And thus our protagonist is shot into space, projected by the force expelled by his lungs. Thankfully he remembered that handy phrase "Don't Panic" for the whole two seconds he lived in that vacuum."
Mod
With light suspended, it's in the same position and therefore everything that was previously illuminated (from dust particles, buildings, water, etc) is still illuminated. Ho..."
Virginia wrote: "As I see it, if everything else stopped you'd be instantly frozen, blind or both.
Heat is just the movement of atoms, so if the atoms and molecules around you stopped moving they would instantly b..."
My mind about exploded when I read these two comments. Like I understood yet at the same time I could not comprehend what I was reading. Such deep and spot on comments. I give you two props, I have nothing to contribute to this, at least for right now as my mind is still recovering from those astronomical comments.
It's definitely fringe science fiction for sure. I'm not very good at practical science, but I can make things up with the best of them. Haha.
Justin wrote: "Thomas wrote: "The way I see it, no.With light suspended, it's in the same position and therefore everything that was previously illuminated (from dust particles, buildings, water, etc) is still ..."
I was raised by an engineer who loved science fiction. I once made the mistake of asking him how to weigh a planet and he told me instead of a bed time story. (Then mum told me to turn the scales upside down.)
Virginia, Who needs bedtime stories when you have that kind of fantastic knowledge coming at you? I wish my parents had nurtured my creative mind like that.
Not talking about what you would do. We all know eating everything and robbing banks would happen. Maybe the occasional pantsing.
No, rather I'm curious what strange effects do you think would happen? Rapid aging? Planet spinning off and flung straight from its orbit?
I have my ideas already pegged, but I'd love to hear what other people think might happen.