Time travel thing - a small preview

[ffutures]

Forthcoming Cruises: Triassic-Cretaceous TS Corinthic, Captain Richard Thorne RNVR, White Star Line: Departs for a four-week cruise to the Triassic-Cretaceous oceans, calling in at London (1588 AD), Vinland (1000 AD), Herculaneum (75 AD; day trip to Pompeii available), Africa (500,000 BC; hunting trips available), Triassic-Cretaceous (circa 150 Million BC). Launched in 1902, the Corinthic is a luxurious new liner of 12,251 tons capable of 14 knots and equipped with the latest Ferguson Chronatron® time displacer and a Babbage-Williamson navigational engine. Excluding stops en-route and any delays to manoeuvre the journey to the Triassic-Cretaceous seas will take approximately a week, with a week spent sight-seeing and hunting in this period before the return journey. Currently all first-class accommodation is reserved, but second and third-class cabins are still available and may be booked via Thomas Cook & Sons and other reputable agents. Corinthic will depart from pier 7, Southampton, at 2.00 PM on Tuesday 11th May.

Okay - showing my crappy maths here. What I need here is a SIMPLE mathematical formula that'll relate the distance travelled in time to the distance at sea, possibly an exponential curve or close to it. The way I want it to work is that you start off slowly but accelerate. A few months in the first few miles, a few years in the next few, and so forth, say 200 million years in a week, and the beginning of the universe in a month or two (assuming you could keep sailing). I can simply give figures that suit me, but it'd be better if I could give a formula that can be used without too much messing around. Any suggestions?

Comments

[robertprior.livejournal.com]

What happens if you hit something while the gadget is on? Does it get carried with you in the "time field"?

What is the distance measured relative to? (Do ocean currents have an effect?)

And will you be ignoring "snowball Earth"?

Hm. If continental drift happens in your setting, voyages at higher speeds get interesting :-)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Hm. If continental drift happens in your setting, voyages at higher speeds get interesting :-)

I was waiting for someone to spot that one. There are all sorts of problems, that's just one of them.

As for hitting things - still working on that.

[madbaz.livejournal.com]

I have a vision of the ship pouring on the speed to catch the continent, which of course just makes the continent accelerate too. Might have to disengage the temporal drive in a known area of open ocean and travel in real-time. Or just cruise around in circles until the continent gets to you. Also, what's the rate of fuel useage, that'll alter the speed of travel as it gets used and the ship gets lighter won't it?

Can't read some text by the way, the picture is covering it.

[madbaz.livejournal.com]

And of course the Earth, sun, spiral arm, galaxy, local group and supercluster are all moving relative to each other too. Some sort of anchor might be in order.

*Goes off singing*
I'm standing on a planet, a planet that's evolving
and revolving at nine hundred miles and hour....

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I've edited how the picture width is set - let me know what you think.

[madbaz.livejournal.com]

Yeah, thanks, that works.