When the Wright Brothers defied gravity a century ago, they also supposedly defied science.After all, hadn't scientists said that human-controlled heavier-than-air flight was impossible? Back then, flying through the atmosphere was just as much science fiction as H.G. Wells' recent fantasy about traveling through time. But then two bicycle builders proved science to be wrong. Or so goes the popular conception.
Surprise. The popular conception was wrong. Far from defying science, the Wright Brothers exploited it, drawing on a century's worth of experiment, math and theory by prominent scientists and performing a few wind tunnel experiments of their own. Some so-called scientists may have scoffed about the prospect for air travel, but those who knew what they were talking about at least acknowledged the possibility.
In 1900, for instance, one of England's premier scientists, Lord Rayleigh, lectured on the topic and concluded that heavier-than-air flight was most likely just a matter of overcoming some practical problems - "a question of some time and much money."
What did seem quite unthinkable, according to Rayleigh's analysis, was a human flying by driving a propeller solely with muscular power. A flying machine with a more substantial source of propulsion, on the other hand, could move through the air horizontally, remaining aloft because the horizontal motion would increase air pressure under a wing and reduce the pressure above it.
Of course, practical problems remained, and it was not until efficient internal combustion engines came along that airplanes had the high-powered and lightweight propulsion source they needed.
Today, science-fiction fans may wonder whether barriers to time travel could also be so simply solved. For now, just as a century ago, the most knowledgeable scientists do not deny the possibility - in theory at least - of going back in time.
Even Stephen Hawking, the British physicist who has often dismissed time travel as fantasy, now says loopholes in the laws of physics could permit time loops into the past.
View: Full Article | Source: The Dallas Morning News
