Time Travel: What to Pack...

We have all seen it before. A fictional chrononaut [time traveller] leaves one time at a specific location and reappears at another time, but the same location. The rationale here being that they did not change their location, only their "time."

There is a major flaw with this rationale...

1. Because of the Earth's rotation, if said traveller is in a vehicle that does NOT change its position, the ground beneath the vehicle will move from 0-1000mph [0-1467fps] depending on proximity to the equator. Buildings, mountains and trees will all become hazards, except at the poles (when considering just this factor alone).

2. Because of the Earth's orbitting speed, it will be moving with respect to the traveller at 18.55 mi/sec, either toward them or away. If toward, it will collide with the vehicle (positively ruining one's trip AND AAA doesn't offer any supporting services); if away, it will take its life-supporting atmosphere with it.

The 1987 TV movie, Timestalkers, had its chrononaut limited to traveling to the same day of the year as when he left. This solves the first two problems, but does NOT take a third factor into consideration:

3. Because the Sun and its [Solar] system orbits the center of the galaxy at 135 mi/sec, the Earth's position on a given calendar day is approximately 4.27 BILLION miles away from its position the previous year.

If you MUST time travel, you will need to bring a life-support system, a space-propulsion system and, most importantly, make sure you leave when the Earth is traveling AWAY from you... 🤓