If you had a Time Machine...

[Tituscrow]

Ok, so I've set my Year 13 (18 year olds) physics students a homework task:

'You have a time machine and can visit one landmark event in the history of science. You can only observe, and must report back to the rest of the class on what you experienced. Obviously you must include factual data, but try and describe the emotions, feelings and sensations of all those involved. Oh, and visiting the birth of Jesus or the death of the last dinosaur is forbidden'

The purpose of this exercise is to encourage independent research skills, the ability to communicate scientific knowledge and understanding in a coherent way, and build confidence to speak in front of an audience.

We had a bit of a brainstorm of suggestions to get the ball rolling (seeing the limestone cap go on the top of the Great Pyramid of Khufu, Archimedes 'Eureka' moment, and the discovery of making fire...) and I am really looking forward to seeing what they come up with.

Anyway, I thought I sound out the good folk of TBOT to see where you'd go and what you'd love to see, but obviously it's not restricted to science.

Thoughts?

[geeza]

I'd go back to find the guy who invented bacon so I could shake his hand.

[Bloodhammer]

I'd like to see Egil Skallagrimsson smart off to King Eirik Haraldsson and then read him that famous suck-up poem that saved his head.

[Relic]

A bit of a corny one but I would love to see Washington and his troops crossing the Delaware in 1776 on their way to the battle of Trenton.. If nothing more than the fact that I grew up near where it happened and have wondered what it must have been like since I was a kid. Christmas Day... driving snowstorm... boatmen wrestling in the early dawn against an ice-choked river to get the troops across...one desperate last-ditch effort to save the revolution from near certain ruin..
when I was growing up this event had grown to mythic proportions. To actually see it go down would be amazing

[Jay2U]

I'd go back to the day my car was stolen. With the knowledge I have now, I would be able to observe the act, in order to report this in detail in the present time. This would bring equilibrium to the balance of Lady Justice.

[dj150888]

Unfortunately the Archimedes "Eureka" moment is only a myth, so that ones out.

my moment would have to be sitting at the back of Alexander Fleming's lab when he returned to discover penecillin. I would love to see the look that was on his face as he realised that sh*tty lab practice had led to this amazing discovery!

[agent77]

I would finally put an end to the age old argument: which came first the chicken or the egg. Then go buy a buttload of Microsoft stocks.

[MatticusMania]

Id go back to the time of Ancient Civilizations, before the Sumerians, and see what really happened.

[kserg]

I would go back in time and start this thread before you.

[Mike N]

1955- The introduction of the Shoebox Chevy and the first Smallblock.

[Funky Ghost]

The height of the Great Library of Alexandria's use. To see it filled with all the known scrolls of the time and being used as intended. Perhaps to see Euclid write his Elements there. Maybe see Archimedes as a student there.

[kserg]

As far as science goes, I'd love to see Heron of Alexandria inventing/working on steam engine (aeolipile (sp?))

It always interested me, how an inventions that change our world so dramatically were simple ignored previously due to lack of need for them. Essentially man power was cheaper then making and perfecting the engine. Think of our world now if it wasn't.

inventions happen for a reason, I'd love to see what was his reason and why it did not take off.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by agent77

I would finally put an end to the age old argument: which came first the chicken or the egg. Then go buy a buttload of Microsoft stocks.

The answer is egg.

You're welcome.

[Jay2U]

How about the rooster?

[1958Bassman]

I was talking with a really old guy and he said that when the first chicken was seen by the animals it descended from (with defects), one of them stopped and said, "What the eff is that?".

[kserg]

Originally Posted by Steve

The answer is egg.

You're welcome.

You guys are all wrong. It was the bunny...

Bam, solved 2 miseries at once. Connection of Bunny and the Eggs for Easter and who came first.

[Cabazon]

I would go to the moment right as I was stepping into the time machine.

[agent77]

Originally Posted by Steve

The answer is egg.

You're welcome.

Thanks. Now how about those Microsoft stocks?

[bassybill]

Originally Posted by Steve

The answer is egg.

You're welcome.

Ahem.

Well, as we have a time machine handy, let's put it to good use answering the chicken/egg question...

Originally Posted by bassybill

... it depends on semantics. Just as a sort of gedankenexperiment (thought experiment), allow me to take this one on. Deep breath...

The first step involves the need to be really clear about what we mean when we say “a chicken”. You could start this by collecting a sample of birds, say a hundred or so, male and female, that you’re happy to call healthy, modern chickens. You put them all in your chicken shack (you’re going to need a very big shack for this).

Then you invent some sort of super genetic compatibility tester that can scan an individual bird’s genome and test for potential reproductive compatibility with all the chickens in your shack that are of opposite sex to the one under test. If your bird can successfully make fertile offspring with these, your tester flashes green.

Now you scour the world, testing every candidate for chickenhood in existence. Green light – the tested bird meets your definition of a chicken and goes into your shack. Red light – it’s not a chicken.

Next step involves building a time machine. If you travel back a few hundred million years, you won’t find a candidate for your chicken tester anywhere in the world. In fact, you won’t find any birds at all. Fast forward to about 100 million years ago and there are plenty of birds about, but it’s highly unlikely that any of them will pass your test with a green light. Your modern chickens will be just too genetically dissimilar to them. But some point further on from there, you’ll find your first candidates and start testing them. And you travel forward through time, testing every single candidate for chickenhood that has ever lived. Only the green lighters go in the shack. Naturally, these get more numerous as you approach our present time.

At the end of this process, you will have a shack that contains every chicken that has ever lived and met your criteria. The whole point of this, of course, is to show that it’s possible to consider as a mathematical set “every chicken ever”.

Now it has to be the case that one bird in your shack qualifies as the first ever chicken (you could say that you’re going to decide that using perfect data about, for example, the precise instant your chicken cracked its eggshell). This one bird was born to parents who are both NOT in your shack (they red lighted on the test). If you go and find them, they will most likely look like chickens to you. They will squawk like a chicken. If you slaughter them and eat them – hey, tastes like chicken! But they’re not chickens. They failed your test.

Now, we only need to define what we mean by the egg in the question. It has to be a chicken egg, right? As has been said, there are millions of other eggs about which it would just not make sense to enquire. But what do we mean by a chicken egg? Any egg laid by a chicken? Or an egg from which a chicken can hatch?

If you opt for the former, then the chicken came before the egg. “The egg” in this case was either laid by our first chicken (if it’s female) or by the first female in your collection to lay an egg (if your first chicken happens to be male). If you opt for the latter definition, then the egg came before the chicken, and was laid by the non-chicken mother of your first born chicken.

So, there are the possible answers. The choice I'll leave with you.

[MakiSupaStar]

I would use it to start a harem of sexy Asian chicks and live off of some wise investments.