Qualitatively Speaking: Special Relativity, Time Travel, and the Cutie Re-Mark

Qualitatively Speaking: Special Relativity, Time Travel, and The Cutie Re-Mark By: Psi Star Psi Special Thanks to my Parents and Needling Haystacks for insightful commentary and review Qualitatively Speaking: Special Relativity, Time Travel, and the Cutie Re-Mark Table of Contents Preface Acknowledgements and Opening Thoughts 4 Introduction Purpose 5 Why bother with physics at all? 5 Qualitatively Speaking: Special Relativity and Time Travel The Relative Nature of Space and Time 6 The Principle of Relativity 7 Speed Limit of the Universe 7 Space and Time in Special Relativity 8 Reconciling Time Travel and Special Relativity 9 Qualitatively Speaking: The Magic of Friendship 10 Qualitatively Speaking: It’s About Time Sheet Diagrams and the Basics of Time Travel 10 Qualitatively Speaking: The Cutie Re-mark Timeline Order and Events within The Cutie Re-mark 12 Order and Description of Events 14 The Cutie Re-mark Review 16 References Qualitatively Speaking: Special Relativity, Time Travel, and the Cutie Re-Mark 20 Preface Acknowledgements and Opening Thoughts Many months ago, I attended Crystal Mountain Ponycon to meet and thank Dr. Wolf, Silver Quill and Commander Firebrand. I also had a copy of a project I had been working on for more than two years: a 296- page treatise on how physics can successfully explain events within the show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. When giving thanks my Season 1 Fluttershy came out and to say there was a lackluster reaction to the physics would be an understatement. The former I did my best to fix in EQD’s Nightly Roundup 1342, and this is my attempt at working on the latter. So, what went wrong? Three professional physicists, all full-time researchers with PhDs in specialized related fields of physics, have looked over this treatise. And all three have been unable to sift through the garble, invented formalism, and insane premise. My roommate said it quite well when I started this project: “You may be the only person on the planet who has both the will to get this done and the skills to do it.” As it happens that’s not true, as there are a few Brony physicists out there who could have performed similar calculations that have reached out to me over various channels. But I could list us all on one hand. So, what to do? Well I was given good advice by the horse famous reviewers: Make things interesting, tie it to the physics more firmly, and explain your theory in 10 seconds. Of course, the latter is impossible as you can’t compress physics to a tweet. But I can do better than 296 pages filled with custom built equations. So, I started working on this series: Qualitatively Speaking. Lastly, this essay starts with a discussion of physics and theoretical principles that my calculations suggest the My Little Pony universe obeys. However, the latter section moves from this reasonable theoretical physics basis well into the realm of head-cannon. The sequence of events that I outline are primarily meant to encourage discussion of what might have happened, when given the restrictions that can be placed upon the Universe with a detailed knowledge of physics. Though I believe that this is the most likely sequence of events, that belief is not at all confident. I would encourage the audience to examine the discussion and head-cannon presented with a skeptical eye – and to discuss what your observations lead you to believe. Introduction Purpose We have three objectives in this essay. First, introduce the reader to Special Relativity. You can’t understand time travel without understanding time. Which brings us to our second objective: discuss time travel within this particular context. Clearly time doesn’t work in the same way that it does in our Universe, but nailing down exactly how it does work turns out to provide important insight into the world of My Little Pony. Once we have completed When examined, the equations on this chalkboard are clearly derived from the Special Theory of Relativity. One can therefore objective two, we can attack our third conclude that the base principles of Special Relativity are obeyed by objective and analyze the Cutie Re-mark the My Little Pony Universe. from a physically sound perspective. I will do so with no meta knowledge permitted. Every scene will be taken as fact and then I will attempt to produce a head-cannon which fills in the gaps of knowledge. Why bother with physics at all? One phrase: Magical Horses. Shouldn’t that exclude the use of physics at all? My first reason for including physics is simple: physics isn’t a theory, it’s a methodology that I have outlined below. Careful observation of a system whose behavior obeys currently unknown laws Initial theory as to the underlying laws that govern the system’s behavior Attempt to refine the understanding of the system by Current theory for the laws proposing changes to the original the system obeys proposition which might account Produce mathematical equations for any discrepancies between which describe a system that theory and experiment. obeys those laws exactly Use these equations to compute theoretical values Perform experiments to for the outcome of determine how closely experiments and predict the experiment and theory existence of previously agree. unobserved phenomena. Physics is just a special case of the scientific method and can be applied to any desired system. Including magical horses. However, as one can figure out just by looking at the first page of my original treatise, this particular problem gets complicated fast. There is a second reason: the show staff include physics and ponies who seek to understand reality within the world of MLP. When denied meta knowledge, everything must be taken as fact and we must conclude that some form of physical laws exists. So, my quest began and here we are. Notably we have Twilight Sparkle’s chalk board from It’s About Time. Twilight Sparkle is well read and thus there must be some general theory where Special Relativity is included. But, Special Relativity is very difficult to reconcile with traveling backwards in time, and indeed this reconciling took most of my effort. Explaining Levitation and the Sonic Rainboom are simple by comparison. Qualitatively Speaking: Special Relativity and Time Travel The Relative Nature of Space and Time Here we will be discussing the aspects of Special Relativity most pertinent to time travel, but if you want to know more I suggest Bronies to go to: http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/428844/its-about- time-dilation. This post is a discussion of the equations which appear in the episode It’s About Time, which we don’t attempt to describe here. We are more interested in a qualitative understanding of the topic at hand. The author of this post, Pineta, does a very good job and displays an ability to explain physics in a concise and generally comprehensible manner. To understand Special Relativity, one needs to first understand that space and time are Relative and why this is the case. Let’s make this idea clear, shall we? First, I want you to imagine that you are in the cloud arena watching the events of Sonic Rainboom. Let’s say this is you. I know whatever is above you is fascinating, but I need you to look down for the lesson! Furthermore, let’s assume that Rarity has fallen so far that the air resistance equals gravitational pull and therefore she is falling at a constant velocity (often called terminal velocity). It’s clear to you – Rarity is moving away from you quickly. But now I want you to imagine that you are Rarity falling from the arena. You seriously want me to ponder physics and the nature of space and time when I am falling to my DEATH?! Yes. Is there something wrong? … Imagine now what the world looks like from Rarity’s perspective. From her point of view, it’s the cloud arena that is moving rather than her. We can see from this example that space and time (i.e. where you are and how fast you are moving) is different from different perspectives. Thus, space and time are relative and depend upon from what point of view you are observing it. In order to understand Special Relativity you need to understand the formal statement of the relative nature of space and time, and one more law. The Principle of Relativity Albert Einstein realized that because of the nature of space and time, the laws of physics must be the same for everypony who meets a requirement. Specifically: 1) All physical laws should be the same for anypony moving at a constant speed in a straight line or standing still. This is the Principle of Relativity. Anypony with zero acceleration will experience identical physical laws. Speed Limit of the Universe The other component of Special Relativity is the idea that the Universe has a speed limit. The speed limit of the Universe is the speed at which light travels or 670,616,629 mph. How is this speed limit enforced? This speed limit is enforced by the speed of light being the same for everypony with zero acceleration. 670,616,629 Twilight Sparkle’s Point of View mph 670,616,629 mph This is very much non-intuitive. So, let’s give an example by telling Rainbow Dash that she can’t outrun a ball of light. I feel confident that would 600,000,000 mph convince Rainbow Dash to try. After researching rocket engines, she produces an engine that should let her travel 600,000,000 mph.

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