August Ferdinand Mobius a 19th century German mathematician and astronomer found that by joining the two ends of a piece of paper together to form a loop BUT twisting the ends before they were joined a continuous loop of only one side was formed.

With the Grandmother paradox we essentially have a time with a Grandmother and a time without. Also if you follow the description in quotes at the top of this page it appears that one follows the other and loops back to the beginning.

We can use the Mobius Strip and adapt it to show a possible interpretation of how Time is twisted in the Grandmother paradox. This is difficult to show on a two-dimensional computer screen or paper so you will need to construct one by printing out the diagram below. You will need scissors, sticky tape and glue. Follow the instructions and then read the description that follows below.

Description

Starting at point A in 1960 the Grandmother is 40. Move to the right through the twentieth century to 1990 when the Grandmother dies at 70. Then in 1999 the Time Traveller makes his trip to 1930 and kills his Grandmother. Follow along moving to the right again through the twentieth century noticing how this time there is no Grandmother and continue all the way to 1999. This time there is no time trip because there is no time traveller. He was not born because his Grandmother did not exist So he could not kill his Grandmother so she does exist and she is 10. Move to the right again through the twentieth century back to point A in 1960 where the Grandmother is 40. And so on......

It is interesting to note that the times at any one place on the loop are the same on both “sides” or “times” and that the arrow of time shown in the centre is always pointing in the same direction. Perhaps this is one way of showing how Time itself could be “twisted” in a higher dimension when it comes to time travelling and is able to cope with any so-called paradox. Then whether this Mobius Time Loop is in fact a single universe or that each “side” is a parallel universe splitting at the time travel trip is perhaps something to discuss later.

If you have any comments on the above I would be very interested to hear them. Perhaps other paradoxes can be shown by using this Mobius Time Loop. Email me at timetravel@antcom.compulink.co.uk with your thoughts.

All comments will receive a reply.

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