The Late Phillip J Fry
Jody Gaines
Phys 212, F07
4/16/14
Website Project
Bibliography
Source [9]
As you can see here, the objects of
the universe of coming close together and collapsing into
a giant object. Eventually the hot object shrinks, at
which point it's either a dark void or a collection of
dense atoms.
Background
In the Futurama episode “The Late Phillip J. Fry,” Fry, Bender, and Professor Farnsworth test out Professor Farnsworth’s time-traveling machine. The machine can only travel forward in time (so to avoid any time paradoxes), but Farnsworth accidentally accelerates the machine, and the machine lands the three of them in the year 10,000. Determined to travel back in time, the three of them keep on traveling forward in time until they find an era where time traveling (to the past) is possible. Unfortunately, the three of them travel to the year 1 billion AD, where all life on Earth is dead. Since the three of them having else to life for, they keep on traveling into the future until every atom in the universe collapses into nothingness. As a result they witness a second big bang, and they witness history repeat itself to the last detail (Farnsworth tries to kill Hitler, but history still doesn’t change drastically). They eventually find their original time period (3000 AD), and find that their time machine is positioned to kill their future (or past?) selves, thus eliminating any possible paradoxes.
Is it Possible?
There are two questions this episode
poses. The first one is, “is time travel in the future
possible? If so, how?” According to Brian Cox, a physicist
at the University of Manchester, one can travel into the
future. There is a caveat: He does not believe that the
person can travel into the past.
The idea behind future time travel is
that it should Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Remember
the theory of relativity states that if object A is moving
faster than object B, then compared to object A, object B
is traveling really slow. So in order to travel into the
future, the object would have to be traveling at a speed
close to the speed of light. Only the fast object will
travel into the future, because everything else moved
relatively slow [5].
On a small scale objects already travel
into the future. People that are flying up in airplanes
feel that time is slower, compared to people that are on
the ground. However, we don't have the technology to
travel at speeds close to the speed of light [5]. So in
"The Late Phillip J. Fry," perhaps they can travel into
the future because the scientists in "Futurama" managed to
change the speed of light.
Big Bang?
The second question
this episode poses is, “can a big bang happen after all
existence is wiped out?” There is no definite answer to this
question, but there is at least one theory that says it's
possible. It's called the "Big Crunch Theory." The theory
states that the expansion of space will eventually reverse
and collapse on itself, thus either making a big black hole
or another possible Big Bang.The idea behind the Big Crunch is that the expansion of the universe reverses, meaning that every atom bends closer together. The atoms would have to be incredibly dense. George Rhee, a Professor of Astronomy and Physics at the University of Nevada, states that the average density of the universe is currently .1 atoms per cubic meter. This is small, compared to the density of 20 atoms per cubic meter, the density of the universe when light was first emitted [6].
Also Rhee considers the temperatures of the stars and other large objects. Back when atoms were closer together, the temperatures of objects were also larger. Ever since the universe expanded, the temperatures of objects have steadily decreased over time, including the sun. So if a Big Crunch were to happen, it would be predicted that the temperatures of the objects would also increase, thus allowing objects to fuse together. At which point we'll either be left with a massive black hole or a potential Big Bang [6]. So "Futurama" might have experienced another Big Bang.