Has anyone wondered about the way Michael J Fox travels back in time?

Marty McFly's Delorean starts travelling back in time once it reaches 88 mph.

This means that when it is at say 90 mph it is already travelling backwards through time. Now lets look closer to the magic 88m ph - Where is the Delorian at 88.0001 mph ?

The logical answer is it is very close to the Delorian at 87.9999 mph (remember the faster Delorian is travelling backwards through time so will co-exist with the slower Delorean just like Marty co-exists with himself later in the film).

Following the logic as we get closer to 88 mph the physical distances between fast Delorean and slow Delorean get less.

So what happens when Marty first exceeds 88 mph ? - KABOOOOOOM

Marty and the Delorean will have atoms that are overlapping, a nuclear fusion reaction should take place and Marty would take out a significant proportion of the United States.

One possible workaround this is that he "instantly jumps" back in time when he reaches 88 mph. If this is true then no Kaboom, but unfortunatly no planet Earth (well it still exists, but it will no longer be where he is !)

As an example, imagine that I could jump back in time just 1 hour. If my location in space remained the same I would travel back in time allright, but I would either be several miles up in the sky, or below the surface of the planet. In Marty's case the more likely outcome would be many millions of miles from planet Earth - ie he will miss the ball.

Phobos

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Phobos on 2002-07-26 21:46 ]</font>