The book Kobayashi Maru noted a piece of equipment being a flux capacitor. Is this an actual scientific piece of equipment, or does Doc Brown from "Back to the Future" predate Zefram Cochrane? If so, where's Marty McFly? 
Flux capacitor in Trek lit - Good ol' Doc Brown?
- Thread starter Lorraine Anderson
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The term "flux capacitor" originated with BTTF, but it's been alluded to in many other works of mass-media SF since then, including TNG's "Hollow Pursuits" and DS9's "What You Leave Behind."
It's always struck me as something of an oxymoron, since "flux" means flow, but the charge in a capacitor isn't flowing, it's being stored in one place. But now that I think about it, I'm wondering if Doc Brown's flux capacitor could be something that made use of the Casimir effect arising from vacuum fluctuations between the capacitor plates, thereby achieving a negative-energy effect and allowing the creation of a spacetime wormhole. Still technobabble, but maybe not the contradiction in terms that it seems.
It's always struck me as something of an oxymoron, since "flux" means flow, but the charge in a capacitor isn't flowing, it's being stored in one place. But now that I think about it, I'm wondering if Doc Brown's flux capacitor could be something that made use of the Casimir effect arising from vacuum fluctuations between the capacitor plates, thereby achieving a negative-energy effect and allowing the creation of a spacetime wormhole. Still technobabble, but maybe not the contradiction in terms that it seems.
Doesn't the prop actually appear in the cockpit of the Phoenix? Or did I imagine that?
I know the Oscillation Overthruster from Buckaroo Banzai showed up as a desk ornament in one of ENT's Terra Prime epsiodes. And I'm pretty sure it's pictured somewhere in one of the editions of the Star Trek Encyclopedia, as a gag.
I know the Oscillation Overthruster from Buckaroo Banzai showed up as a desk ornament in one of ENT's Terra Prime epsiodes. And I'm pretty sure it's pictured somewhere in one of the editions of the Star Trek Encyclopedia, as a gag.
As a lot of people know, I was a store manager for EB Games for seven years, beginning about a decade ago.
When I started with the company, most of our stores were called "Electronics Boutique." It's not obvious from the name what the store sold -- we sold video games, but it wasn't uncommon to receive phone calls about other electronic devices.
One day, someone called up looking for capacitors.
He sounded old, in his sixties. He had a harsh, raspy voice. "Do you sell capacitors?"
I could have said no. Because we didn't. However, I'm puckish, so... "We do, actually. Not many, though, because we don't have much call for them."
"What do you have?"
"We have a flux capacitor. It's rated for 1.21 gigawatts."
He sounded excited by the news. He said he'd come right over.
If he did, I never saw him.
When I started with the company, most of our stores were called "Electronics Boutique." It's not obvious from the name what the store sold -- we sold video games, but it wasn't uncommon to receive phone calls about other electronic devices.
One day, someone called up looking for capacitors.
He sounded old, in his sixties. He had a harsh, raspy voice. "Do you sell capacitors?"
I could have said no. Because we didn't. However, I'm puckish, so... "We do, actually. Not many, though, because we don't have much call for them."
"What do you have?"
"We have a flux capacitor. It's rated for 1.21 gigawatts."
He sounded excited by the news. He said he'd come right over.
If he did, I never saw him.
I remember EB, they were all sold/bought out a few years ago by Game if I remember rightly.
yeah, they were
I keep thinking that if they did have Emmett Brown's flux capacitor, that would be a pretty handy way to get around the FTL problem...
^^What, you mean spend ten years travelling at sublight to another star system, then go back in time ten years? Not sure how practical that is...
If you own a DeLorean, there are custom "flux capacitor" kits you can install in them.
Don't know if they actually work or not ...
--Ted
Don't know if they actually work or not ...
--Ted
If you own a DeLorean, there are custom "flux capacitor" kits you can install in them.
Don't know if they actually work or not ...
--Ted
awwwwwwww the DeLorean, apart from the crazed religious zealot, Belfast's greatest export since Titanic
I actually saw a DeLorean the other day, toolin' down the road. No flux capacitor, no Mr. Fusion, or even snappy white-walls, tho.....
Ha! I see that thing about twice a year. Usually near the AMC 30 in Olathe.
Was up in seattle last St. Patrick's Day weekend, and there were at least a dozen Delorenas in the parade they were having in downtown.
Didn't see evidence of flux capacitors, nor were any "Mr. Fusion" devices mounted on the rears of the vehicles.
No oscillation overthrusters, either.
I thought it was just an inside joke.
I really would want to own a Mr Fusion, or at least understand the theory and engineering of how it worked.
I really would want to own a Mr Fusion, or at least understand the theory and engineering of how it worked.
This was in Lee's Summit, and it happened so fast I didn't think to check the license plate, but how many of those things can there be around here?
It worked because the script said so. That's all there is to it. As depicted, it made no sense, with banana peels and coffee grounds and pop cans and so forth being tossed in to use as fuel. A fusion reactor would most likely combine isotopes of hydrogen, such as deuterium and tritium, into helium. Now, you could potentially get a few dribs and drabs of deuterium out of the water in a banana peel or pizza crust or the like, or maybe the residual drops of soda in the cans, although it would probably take more energy to extract it than you could get from fusing it. But most of the stuff that was dumped in there would be totally useless.
Although, as with the flux capacitor, now that I actually write down my objection, I find myself thinking of a possible alternative explanation. Maybe its fusion source and deuterium and tritium or helium-3 supply are built in, and it's essentially a fusion torch device, using the heat from a small fusion reaction to vaporize the garbage, with the car then using that vapor to drive the engine. Kind of like how a nuclear reactor just uses its heat to create water vapor to drive a turbine, essentially the same principle as a coal-driven steam engine, just with a different heat source. Or maybe "Mr. Fusion" is just advertising hyperbole and it actually uses some entirely different power source to generate enough heat to vaporize the garbage.
This was in Lee's Summit, and it happened so fast I didn't think to check the license plate, but how many of those things can there be around here?
Some crazy Yank has started building them again, not sure if he's managed to get some money off HMG and not sure if it is in Belfast though!
Even better: in one of the books (or is it SCE?) Scotty complains that he's working with people who "can't tell an interocitor from an overthruster." Two pop tech references for the price of one!
Even stranger: Littering Marty's room in BTTF are copies of Reference Quarterly (RQ), a publication of the American Library Association for reference librarians.
Even stranger: Littering Marty's room in BTTF are copies of Reference Quarterly (RQ), a publication of the American Library Association for reference librarians.
My nephew restores Deloreans (as a sideline) and owns one. He'll be adding turbo to it this fall.
When my niece had her 10th birthday a few years ago, she was really into BTTF. My nephew loaned me his DeLorean and you should have seen her face when we drove up the driveway to take her for drive!
Oh, yeah ... I'm definitely the "cool" uncle.
--Ted
When my niece had her 10th birthday a few years ago, she was really into BTTF. My nephew loaned me his DeLorean and you should have seen her face when we drove up the driveway to take her for drive!
Oh, yeah ... I'm definitely the "cool" uncle.
--Ted
Maybe Marty worked or volunteered in the Hill Valley library? That could be where he met Doc Brown. I always wondered how two such disparate individuals became friends.
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