It could also help us improve the electronics we use today, everything from smartphones to radar systems. As the paper's lead author, Clemens Mueller, noted in the news release, the device could help researchers precisely control signals, necessary to advance quantum computing. The flux capacitor itself may be complex, but it's applications are clear. "In it, quantum 'tubes' of magnetic flux can move around a central capacitor by a process known as quantum tunneling, where they overcome classically insurmountable obstacles," theoretical physicist Jared Cole, one of the researchers behind the proposal, said in a news release. One does resemble the Y-shaped device used in the movies, but is much more complicated than "Back to the Future" made it seem. The researchers propose two designs for their flux capacitor. In this analogy, the cars represent the microwave signals and the land they circle is the capacitor. Credit: PINAVIA This is pretty remarkable because it breaks something called time-reversal symmetry - a theoretical law of physics that states that, if you reversed time, you’d see whatever just happened, happen exactly in reverse, like a mirror image. The device forces microwaves to flow in just one direction around a center area, just like cars in a roundabout. Ironically, while Doc and Marty didn't need roads where they were going, the best analogy for how the researchers' flux capacitor would work does involve traffic. ![]() So in a flux capacitor, microwaves are the something, and the channel they move across is a central capacitor. Flux, meanwhile, is the amount of something moving across a certain area. Capacitors are devices that store energy, and they're pretty common in the world of electronics. What the heck is this flux capacitor, anyway? Let's break it down. The Australian and Swiss physicists behind the invention published their research Monday in the journal Physical Review Letters. While the version proposed by these scientists won't let you traipse through time, it could do something almost as cool: help usher in the quantum computing era. No, it's not a real-life version of what was in the "Back to the Future" franchise (reminder: in the movies, the flux capacitor is the plutonium-powered device that makes time travel possible). The offering joined in on various celebrations on October 21, 2015, which was the day Marty McFly travelled to the future in the 1989 sequel to the original film, Back to the Future Part II.Great Scott! A team of physicists just figured out how to make a flux capacitor. In 2015, auto company Ford also offered a flux capacitor upgrade on Fiesta cars as a humorous homage to the film. Merchandise such as key chains and cell phone chargers based on the device are also common. It’s popular to build replica flux capacitors, so you can find instructions online for creating these. Someone who hasn’t seen Back to the Future and doesn’t know very much about physics might be told to go and get a flux capacitor for their car or that they need to replace the flux capacitor on their computer. Since flux capacitor has the ring of genuine engineering terminology, being made of existing scientific terms, it’s sometimes used as a practical joke. You might say, for example, “Did someone activate the flux capacitor? That law belongs in 1965.” If you’re talking about how dreadful the current state of your country is, you might joke that “if it gets much worse I’ll just have to build a flux capacitor.” It can also be used to suggest that a policy or piece of information is outdated, as if it’s throwing people back into the past, referencing the basic plot of the original Back to the Future, which sends Marty McFly from the 1980s to the 1950s. Some clever engineers, nodding to the film, have built contraptions they called flux capacitors-though these real-life fabrications have yet to achieve time travel.įlux capacitor is still mostly used in reference to the film and to time travel more generally. In physics, flux is the amount of something (like electricity) that’s passing through a given object’s surface and a capacitor is a device that stores electronic charge. ![]() Fox) to time-travel.Ī flux capacitor is a bit of fun sci-fi technobabble made up of two pieces of genuine scientific terminology. The flux capacitor was invented by Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), and allows Marty McFly (Michael J. It simply consists of a box with three flashing lights connected in a Y shape, installed in the film’s iconic time-traveling vehicle, the DeLorean, a short-lived sports car famed for its doors, which open up rather than out. Although it’s described as the thing that makes time travel possible, the precise mechanism it works by isn’t ever explained. The flux capacitor is a piece of technology in the 1985 time-travel film Back to the Future and its sequels.
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