54
PHYSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE
water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch
did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. Philip, however,
appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the
towns until he reached Caesarea" (Acts 8:36-40).
Teleportation is also part of every magician's bag of tricks and illusions: pulling rabbits out of a hat, cards out of his or her sleeves, and
coins from behind someone's ear. One of the more ambitious magic
tricks of recent times featured an elephant disappearing before the
eyes of a startled audience. In this demonstration a huge elephant,
weighing many tons, was placed inside a cage. Then, with a flick of a
magician's wand, the elephant vanished, much to the amazement of
the audience. (Of course, the elephant really did not disappear. The
trick was performed with mirrors. Long, thin, vertical mirror strips
were placed behind each bar of the cage. Like a gate, each of these vertical mirror strips could be made to swivel. At the start of the magic
trick, when all these vertical mirror strips were aligned behind the
bars, the mirrors could not be seen and the elephant was visible. But
when the mirrors were rotated by 45 degrees to face the audience, the
elephant disappeared, and the audience was left staring at the reflected
image from the side of the cage.)
TELEPORTATION AND SCIENCE FICTION
The earliest mention of teleportation in science fiction occurred in Edward Page Mitchell's story "The Man Without a Body," published in
1877. In that story a scientist was able to disassemble the atoms of a cat
and transmit them over a telegraph wire. Unfortunately the battery
died while the scientist was trying to teleport himself. Only his head
was successfully teleported.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, best known for his Sherlock Holmes novels, was fascinated by the notion of teleportation. After years of writing
detective novels and short stories he began to tire of the Sherlock
Holmes series and eventually killed off his sleuth, having him plunge
to his death with Professor Moriarty over a waterfall. But the public
PHYSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE
water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch
did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. Philip, however,
appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the
towns until he reached Caesarea" (Acts 8:36-40).
Teleportation is also part of every magician's bag of tricks and illusions: pulling rabbits out of a hat, cards out of his or her sleeves, and
coins from behind someone's ear. One of the more ambitious magic
tricks of recent times featured an elephant disappearing before the
eyes of a startled audience. In this demonstration a huge elephant,
weighing many tons, was placed inside a cage. Then, with a flick of a
magician's wand, the elephant vanished, much to the amazement of
the audience. (Of course, the elephant really did not disappear. The
trick was performed with mirrors. Long, thin, vertical mirror strips
were placed behind each bar of the cage. Like a gate, each of these vertical mirror strips could be made to swivel. At the start of the magic
trick, when all these vertical mirror strips were aligned behind the
bars, the mirrors could not be seen and the elephant was visible. But
when the mirrors were rotated by 45 degrees to face the audience, the
elephant disappeared, and the audience was left staring at the reflected
image from the side of the cage.)
TELEPORTATION AND SCIENCE FICTION
The earliest mention of teleportation in science fiction occurred in Edward Page Mitchell's story "The Man Without a Body," published in
1877. In that story a scientist was able to disassemble the atoms of a cat
and transmit them over a telegraph wire. Unfortunately the battery
died while the scientist was trying to teleport himself. Only his head
was successfully teleported.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, best known for his Sherlock Holmes novels, was fascinated by the notion of teleportation. After years of writing
detective novels and short stories he began to tire of the Sherlock
Holmes series and eventually killed off his sleuth, having him plunge
to his death with Professor Moriarty over a waterfall. But the public