The true science behind how the flow capacitor of the future works

The flow capacitor is the essential component of the Doc Brown time machine; This is how it works.

By Sckylar Gibby-Brown | Published 33 seconds ago

It was a fateful day for Doc Brown in 1955 when he fell from the bathroom, he hit his head in his sink and woke up with the image of the burned flow capacitor in his brain. That was the moment when everything began, the fundamental incident for Doc’s trip on the return to the future franchise.

How does the flow capacitor work, this strange mechanism that allows Doc and Marty McFly to travel over time, it really works?

Let’s enter the true science of Return to the future.

What is a flow capacitor?

So what exactly is the flow capacitor? This small and strange box contains flashing lights that are connected to Y -shaped tubes, and is installed in the famous delorean traveling in the time of Doc. In fact, the Delorean time machine is based on the flow capacitor, since it is the crucial component that allows time trip.

While the films back to the future never explicitly explain how the flow capacitor works, we can make some quite good conjectures based on the information we have. For example, the words “flow” and “condenser” give two quite good suggestions on their own, as in the field of physics, “flow” refers to the amount of a substance, such as electricity, which flows through the surface of an object, while “condenser” is a device designed to store electric charge.

The invention of Doc is rooted in sufficient science that, despite the fact that no engineer has invented the time trip still (as far as we know), many engineers have developed their own flow capacitors as a tribute to the film.

In theory, the flow condenser works as an energy tank for an immense amount of energy, specifically 1.21 gigawatts (equivalent to 1,210,000,000 watts). When a speed of 88 miles per hour is reached, this energy is directed through three light rods, which makes microwave travel unidirectionally and converge in the center.

Then, the flow capacitor, connected to the flow bands located outside the Delorean, would untie an amazing 1.21 Gigawatts of power, which allows a transition through the worm hole at a speed of 88 mph. However, for Delorean to generate the worm hole, he must first capture and unravel two black holes, a feat that requires the intersection of quantum mechanics and classical mechanics.

Back to the future uses a spherical continuum in space-time

In time travel theory presented in the films back to future, the continuous space-time would have to be spherical because when Marty and Doc get on the trips of Delorean at the same time, they essentially leave a space in time to reappear in the same space, only at a different time in time.

This is only why the DOC flow capacitor would not actually work. Actually, nothing remains in the same place that we are sitting on a rotating planet that continually promotes through space.

How to feed a flow capacitor

For the sake of the discussion, let’s say that the flow capacitor actually had the opportunity to work. If so, how would it be promoted? Fortunately, the films gave a good explanation to answer this (as long as we take advantage of our suspension of disbelief).

While a regular delorean will be executed with regular leadless gas, the time machine needs something a little more powerful to kick the high march flow capacitor … Plutonium. While the Doc time machine is not nuclear (it is electric, according to DOC), it needs a nuclear reaction to boost the creations of wormholes that travel over time. Actually, it needs much more than a Jumstart.

As we have mentioned, the flow capacitor needs 1.21 gigawatts to execute. Let’s take a moment to think about how strong it is really. For example, a nuclear class Nimitz class aircraft carrier used by the US Navy. UU only uses 194 megaWatts, so nothing in real life is even close to the amount of power you need for your time machine.

Fortunately for Doc and Marty, a lightning of 300 million volts carries a sufficient blow for the flow capacitor to work, which is how they solve this problem in the movies.

Could a flow capacitor work?

So could a flow condenser work in real life? Until now, no scientist has managed to be as intelligent as Doc Brown and withdraw the trip from time. However, a true flow capacitor has been invented.

According EngadgetThe real -life flow capacitor is a novel form of electronic circulator that can regulate the directional flow of microwave signals, offering possible advances for quantum computing and advances in radar technology.

It is mainly used to improve Wi -Fi and mobile antennas. But with enough research, perhaps our real world scientists can discover how to use it as Doc did and travel back to 1955.