Back to the Future -
Shortly after 1:00 AM on October 25, 1985 Marty McFly arrives at the Twin Pines Mall outside Hill Valley, California to meet his friend Doctor Emmett Brown for a science experiment. The experiment turns out to be the world's first test of a time machine, built by Doc.
Doc demonstrates the time machine by placing his dog, Einstein, in the passenger compartment of it (a modified DMC-12, "Delorean") and operating the car by remote control. By Doc's own words by the time the car "hits 88 miles an hour we should see some serious shit." He procedes to -remotely- engage the car's parking brake and then accelerates it in place up to 50-some miles an hour, disengages the brake and the car then accelerates freely up till 88 miles an hour and travels through time. One minute into the future.
So, we run into a number of problems with this scene, later in the movie while Marty is trapped in 1955 he and the 1955 Doc work out a plan to get Marty back to 1985 and part of the plan involves Marty having to accelerate the car to 88 miles an hour before it reaches a cable strung across the street designed to harness a lightning bolt (supplying the time machine with the power it needs to travel through time.)
During Temporal Experiment #1 we learn a few things and we also get some questions. First, it seems, that the "88 miles an hour" thing isn't a requirment for time travel but, perhaps, just the time it takes for the car to pepare all of it's circuits for the temporal trip. How do we know this? Doc accelerates the car in place! Try this sometime, sit somewhere in a parking lot in your car, have the car in gear and rip-up on the parking brake as hard as you can, now press on the gas. The car will likely struggle but will still likely accelerate.
Now, this tells us something about what Doc's done to the Delorean, he's likely vastly increased the power of the parking brake or the brake switch on the remote also engaged the car's regular brakes. (Try this in your car, have the parking brake engaged, press down on the pedal-brake with your left foot now try and accelerate. The car likely won't go anywhere but will try to.) But it also tells us the the car doesn't actually need to be physically moving at 88 miles an hour! The wheels just have to be moving at that speed and even then that's not likely the wheels just have to of been spinning enough to reach a combined speed of 88 before and after the brake is engaged.
Why? Because what Doc is trying to do here is literally hit the ground running. The car "accelerates" while standing still. How can the car accelerate to 50-some miles an hour while standing perfectly still? The car's engine may moving at several thousand RPMs but it's moving at 0 miles an hour.
And even if at the speed Doc's got the wheels "would be" 50 miles an hour were it not for the brakes once he releases the brakes all of the energy used to get the wheels moving that fast will be spent moving the 1200 lb car forward. In the end? The car doesn't start moving at the 50-some miles Doc's speedometer on the remote says it starts moving at 0 miles an hour and then has to speed up to 88, so Doc's little stunt there was all for show.
But let's take the scene for what we're shown. That it's not about the "speed" but some other factor with the car, it's energy being expended and some factor with the time circuits. This means the car should be able to travel through time standing still. All Doc would have to do is stop the car, engage his crazy brakes, and "accelerate in place" until it gets to 88. Boom Boom Boom. Travel through time. This also means that Marty didn't need to accelerate towards the cable at the end; Doc could've just wired the car directly to the lightning rod and had Marty accelerate the car in place. No need to risk the entire thing on Marty's driving ability or 1955 Doc's understanding of the acceleration of a car that won't be built for almost 30 years.
This could also expalin how the car travels at the end of Part 2 while in the sky seemingly not moving much at all. The car's movement in the air was "somehow" 88 miles an hour even though the car wasn't really moving.
That, or I'm over thinking all of this.
Shortly after 1:00 AM on October 25, 1985 Marty McFly arrives at the Twin Pines Mall outside Hill Valley, California to meet his friend Doctor Emmett Brown for a science experiment. The experiment turns out to be the world's first test of a time machine, built by Doc.
Doc demonstrates the time machine by placing his dog, Einstein, in the passenger compartment of it (a modified DMC-12, "Delorean") and operating the car by remote control. By Doc's own words by the time the car "hits 88 miles an hour we should see some serious shit." He procedes to -remotely- engage the car's parking brake and then accelerates it in place up to 50-some miles an hour, disengages the brake and the car then accelerates freely up till 88 miles an hour and travels through time. One minute into the future.
So, we run into a number of problems with this scene, later in the movie while Marty is trapped in 1955 he and the 1955 Doc work out a plan to get Marty back to 1985 and part of the plan involves Marty having to accelerate the car to 88 miles an hour before it reaches a cable strung across the street designed to harness a lightning bolt (supplying the time machine with the power it needs to travel through time.)
During Temporal Experiment #1 we learn a few things and we also get some questions. First, it seems, that the "88 miles an hour" thing isn't a requirment for time travel but, perhaps, just the time it takes for the car to pepare all of it's circuits for the temporal trip. How do we know this? Doc accelerates the car in place! Try this sometime, sit somewhere in a parking lot in your car, have the car in gear and rip-up on the parking brake as hard as you can, now press on the gas. The car will likely struggle but will still likely accelerate.
Now, this tells us something about what Doc's done to the Delorean, he's likely vastly increased the power of the parking brake or the brake switch on the remote also engaged the car's regular brakes. (Try this in your car, have the parking brake engaged, press down on the pedal-brake with your left foot now try and accelerate. The car likely won't go anywhere but will try to.) But it also tells us the the car doesn't actually need to be physically moving at 88 miles an hour! The wheels just have to be moving at that speed and even then that's not likely the wheels just have to of been spinning enough to reach a combined speed of 88 before and after the brake is engaged.
Why? Because what Doc is trying to do here is literally hit the ground running. The car "accelerates" while standing still. How can the car accelerate to 50-some miles an hour while standing perfectly still? The car's engine may moving at several thousand RPMs but it's moving at 0 miles an hour.
And even if at the speed Doc's got the wheels "would be" 50 miles an hour were it not for the brakes once he releases the brakes all of the energy used to get the wheels moving that fast will be spent moving the 1200 lb car forward. In the end? The car doesn't start moving at the 50-some miles Doc's speedometer on the remote says it starts moving at 0 miles an hour and then has to speed up to 88, so Doc's little stunt there was all for show.
But let's take the scene for what we're shown. That it's not about the "speed" but some other factor with the car, it's energy being expended and some factor with the time circuits. This means the car should be able to travel through time standing still. All Doc would have to do is stop the car, engage his crazy brakes, and "accelerate in place" until it gets to 88. Boom Boom Boom. Travel through time. This also means that Marty didn't need to accelerate towards the cable at the end; Doc could've just wired the car directly to the lightning rod and had Marty accelerate the car in place. No need to risk the entire thing on Marty's driving ability or 1955 Doc's understanding of the acceleration of a car that won't be built for almost 30 years.
This could also expalin how the car travels at the end of Part 2 while in the sky seemingly not moving much at all. The car's movement in the air was "somehow" 88 miles an hour even though the car wasn't really moving.
That, or I'm over thinking all of this.
