Flux capacitor
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Image:Flux1.jpg The flux capacitor is the core component of Doctor Emmett Brown's fictional time traveling De Lorean DMC-12 in the popular 1985 movie Back to the Future, its two sequels, and the animated series. We learn from Doc Brown that the flux capacitor "is what makes time travel possible."
Because of its popularity, the flux capacitor has been adopted by various science fiction authors who did not wish to explain time travel, similar to the way writers have used Isaac Asimov's positronic brain in robots.
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How it "works"
It is not made clear in the movie exactly how the flux capacitor works. It consists of a box with three small, flashing incandescent lamps arranged as a "Y", located above and behind the passenger's seat of the De Lorean time machine. As the car nears 88 miles per hour, the light of the flux capacitor pulses faster until it has a steady stream of light. The stainless steel body of the De Lorean also has a beneficial effect on the "flux dispersal" as the capacitor activates, although Doc is interrupted before he can finish explaining it fully.
At the end of the third film in the series, when Doc Brown has converted a steam train into a time machine, the flux capacitor is located on the front of the train, in place of the lamp.
On November 5, 1955 Doc came up with the idea of the flux capacitor after slipping off his toilet while standing on it to hang a clock and bumping his head. The idea came to him in a vision he had after being knocked out.
In order to travel through time it requires 1.21 gigawatts (GW) of electricity originally supplied by some kind of a plutonium powered nuclear reactor. Also for time travel, the De Lorean needs to be travelling at 88 mph (141.6 km/h), which is achieved by its gasoline powered internal combustion engine. During its first two trips (one minute forward in time, and back in time to 1955) the combination was used without incident. However, during its next trip (back to 1985), plutonium was not available and a lightning rod was connected directly to the flux capacitor and was used while the vehicle sustained 88 mph. Plutonium was used once again for a trip forward in time at least 30 years, and at some point thereafter the plutonium reactor was replaced by a "Mr. Fusion" home energy generator from the future that was somehow fueled by garbage. The De Lorean once again came back to 1985 and proceeded to travel to 2015 where it was stolen and taken back to 1955 and returned back to 2015 without the Doc's knowledge. When they returned in 1985, they found it was a different present, so they traveled back to 1955 to fix the timeline. The De Lorean was again struck by lightning in the year 1955, this time by accident. The lightning activated the flux capacitor and sent the De Lorean back to 1885. It is unknown exactly how this happened, as the De Lorean was hovering in midair and not traveling at 88 mph, but it is likely some combination of the severe electrical storm mixed with the malfunctioning time circuits. The De Lorean's time circuit control microchip was irrepairably damaged so it was hidden in the Delgado mine for 70 years. It was recovered from the mine in 1955 and repaired with "1955 counterparts", thus restoring it to perfect working order. Since both gasoline and garbage were available, the next trip back to 1885 was performed under the car's own power. Due to lack of gasoline and a broken fuel line, the De Lorean's final trip from 1885 to 1985 was partially powered by a steam locomotive pushing the vehicle up to 88 mph while using Mr. Fusion to generate the 1.21 Gigawatts required to activate the Flux Capacitor and break the Time barrier. At the very end of the third movie, Doc returns to 1985 in a time machine made from a train. This uses a flux capacitor that Doc was able to power using steam.
"Jigowatt"
In the movie, the power required is pronounced "one point twenty-one jigowatts". Although this pronunciation of "gigawatt" was once considered the correct one, it is no longer the most common. (In addition, since Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale were unfamiliar with the term, they misspelled it in the script.) Because of this, a "jigowatt" will sometimes be referred to on Internet forums as a fictional unit or to make fun of someone's electrical knowledge. The spelling "jigowatt" is used in the novelizations of films 2 and 3. However, the book of the original film uses the correct spelling "gigawatt".
Electronics
Although "flux capacitor" is a fictitious term, the phrase has appeared in more serious contexts. US patent number 6084285 describes a "lateral flux capacitor having fractal-shaped perimeters," the idea being to make a capacitor in an integrated circuit some of whose capacitance exists between two conductors on a single layer (hence, "lateral"). The device is not a lateral flux-capacitor but a lateral-flux capacitor.
Flux is commonly used in electronics and electromagnetic theory and application, but rarely in the context of a capacitor. In general terms, flux simply means the rate at which some quantity (such as electric charge) passes through a surface (e.g. charge flux). It is speculated that the movie terminology is used fictitiously to represent a new and unknown type of flux.
Trivia
- The Flux Capacitor has been mentioned in many shows almost as a slight joke when talking about time travel. One such example is the Mind over Murder episode of Family Guy, where Stewie is building a time machine. When someone else finds his drawings they recognize it as a time machine by saying "this is where the flux capacitor goes".
- The Flux capacitor was an electrical slot tech in the turn-based space empire game Stars!. The function however, is to increase beam weapon damage by 20%, nothing like in Back to the future, although the image of it maintains a glowing Y-shape.
External links
- U.S. Patent Office full-text description of a lateral flux capacitor having fractal-shaped perimeters.es:Condensador de flujo