LOST-Theories.com

This one is a long one so Ihoe you have a Snickers bars cause you’re not going anywhere for a while :)

So far, we’ve seen two Electro-magnetic (EM) pulses on Lost. The first one was accidentally caused by Desmond when he failed to enter the code into the Swan station computer and the system went into “System Failure” mode. The second one, this time caused intentionally by Desmond, was initiated by the turning of the Swan station failsafe key which “imploded” the EM-anomaly. But what is an EM pulse and would it have caused flight 815 to break up in the manner shown?

An EM pulse simply what the name implies: A powerful pulse of electromagnetic energy. This type of pulse radiates outward from it’s origination point in a spherical pattern. It’s energy level drops off, like many energetic phenomenon, according to the inverse square law; for every equal unit of measure it moves from the starting point, the energy level drop a square of that distance. The further away you are from the pulse’s origination point, the weaker it gets…common sense stuff. In techie terms, the energy measured at 9 miles from the source is only 1/3 the energy of that measured at 3 miles from the source. (3 times 3 = 9) Also the energy measured at 25 miles from the source is only 1/5th the intensity of the energy as measured 5 miles from the source. You get the picture.

The easiest way to emit an EM pulse is with nuclear weapons. The larger the yield of the weapon, the larger the EM pulse. A 20-megaton air-blast at high altitude could fry all of the electrical equipment in the northeast U.S. for example (except for equipment that has special EM shielding) EM radiation pulses emit powerful gamma rays which interfere with the operations of electrical equipment. Any unshielded electrical equipment in the range of an EM pulse is fried and will no longer function. Cars, radios, electrical power grids, watches, blenders, none of them would function.

The two EM pulses seen on Lost so far (if that is what they were) though not caused by nukes, were obviously powerful but what would their effects have been?

First, we have to assume that the Swan Station was heavily shielded against EM pulses as it does not make sense for it not to be. If you are conducting experiments with electromagnetic energy, you don’t want your station to have it’s electronic gear fried on your first experiment. So when Desmond caused the first system failure by not entering the numbers in time, the first EM pulse was emitted and supposedly brought down flight 815. But would an EM pulse have brought down the aircraft in the manner we saw? Based on the visual evidence it is very unlikely.

Here is some techie info on the type of aircraft which flight 815 was supposed to be (though the actual wreckage used on the series was a retired Lockheed aircraft, not a Boeing) The 777-200ER (Extended Range) flies the same number of passengers as the 777-200 (305 and 328 in a typical three-class configuration or up to 400 maximum) but to a range of 14,260km. The aircraft has a higher fuel capacity and strengthened wing, fuselage, engine pylons, landing gear and empennage (tail unit). The aircraft first flew in October 1996 and first entered service in February 1997 with British Airways. By September 2007, 430 aircraft had been ordered and 400 delivered. (from Aerospace-technology.com)

If the pulse was powerful enough to cause an airliner to crash, here’s how it would have effected the Boeing 777-200-ER. First, the pulse would have fried all of the electronics on the aircraft; radios, flight instrumentation, navigation systems, computer systems lighting and flight and engine controls. Since the flight controls on the 777 are electronic fly-by-wire, not mechanical or hydraulic (Boeing decided to go with the newer technology when designing the 777) the pilots would have had no control over the aircraft after the pulse. When the pulse hit, the aircraft electrical systems, controls and engines would have simply shut down and it would have become an un-powered, uncontrollable glider. The breakup of 815 should not have happened as we saw it. The 777 was in stable, slightly-descending flight and there is no reason for it to have broken up at that point. Considering the lack of control it was suffering, any turbulence strong enough to break up the airframe would have not have occurred during nearly-level controlled flight, it would have happened earlier during it’s high-stress descent. Additionally, the wings would have both come off before the stronger fuselage disintegrated. So the EM pulse would have been strong enough to bring down a 777 but it would have been a slow, uncontrolled glide down to the ground or water rather than the dramatic breakup in mid-air. Also, something was seen coming off the aircraft just prior to the 777 breaking up and many presume that it is one of the lower cargo hatches, a theory with which I agree. But was the hatch coming off a result of the breakup or casual to the breakup of flight 815. At the lower altitude and speed at which the aircraft was observed during the breakup, it is most likely a result of the breakup and not the cause of it. At higher altitudes and greater speeds, the aerodynamic stresses on an aircraft which loses a cargo hatch are much greater, in part because of the larger differences in the air pressure inside the aircraft and outside the aircraft literally tears the airframe apart at cruising speeds. And Jack’s assertion that the plane was at 40,000 feet and dropped a couple hundred feet is way off. 815 was observed at an altitude of no more than 15,000 (probably less) when it broke up which means it dropped at least 25,000 feet prior to coming apart. Any damage incurred would be sufficient enough to break up the aircraft and would have happened during the rapid and violent descent, not during a leisurely, near-level cruise at low speeds.

That means that something else would have had to have made 815 break up in mid air. What brought it down, if not the EM pulse is the question. The aircraft coming apart as was seen can usually be caused by several events. These include a bomb, sabotage, catastrophic structural failure and external impactor.

Let’s look at these one at a time.

1. Bomb. Not likely but possible. Any bomb in the cargo compartment could have blown out the side of the aircraft, causing the airframe to come apart. However, there was not a fireball or explosion visible until after the breakup started. Additionally anything in the cargo hold would have been damaged destroyed or killed and none of the luggage recovered aft the crash looked burned and Vincent survived the breakup and crash. Verdict: unlikely

2. Sabotage. While an aircraft can be sabotaged so that a breakup resembles a bomb blast without the fireball or other effects associated with an explosion, there is no evidence or even suggestions of this. In addition, such sabotage means that 815 was brought down intentionally by some individual or group. Also there is no evidence of this being caused by either a terrorist or any other organization. Verdict: unlikely.

3. Catastrophic failure. This is what was observed but what was the cause? A center fuel tank exploding, which is something that actually has downed a Boeing aircraft, is not evidenced for the same reasons that rule out an explosive device. Metal fatigue is a possibility but since the 777 has only been in service since 1997, there is no way that an aircraft less than a third of the way through it’s operational lifetime could be suffering from metal fatigue in the fuselage sufficient enough to cause a mid-air breakup. A horizontal or vertical stabilizer or perhaps the wings coming off is more possible but the fuselage came apart first. And since the center of the fuselage is the structurally strongest part of the aircraft, we can probably rule out metal fatigue.

4. External impactor. In other words a missile, another aircraft or anything else which physically hit the aircraft and caused it to come apart. We can rule out a missile (no exhaust trail or visual sighting) or another aircraft (no visual sighting) We can even rule out something as unlikely as a meteorite for the same reasons. The smoke monster? Maybe, but again, no visual sighting and why would it go after an aircraft at least 15,000 feet up in the air? This leaves us with few alternatives. More on this after some other problems associated with a giant EM pulse.

Another of the problems in regards to an EM pulse is with the emergency transmitter that Jack, Kate and Charlie recovered from the nose section of the aircraft; it should not have worked! Yes, I know that it didn’t and that Sayid fixed it but it should have never worked at all! The EM pulse should have fried it and any other electronic piece of equipment which survived the crash. Flashlights, laptop batteries, cell phones, Hurley’s CD-player, any other device of an electrical nature should have be destroyed by they EM pulse if it was powerful enough to bring down an airliner. This would, however, explain why they aircraft’s ELC’s (Emergency Locator Transmitters) were not working. These transmitters, which must be installed on all commercial aircraft, are designed to activate after any strong impact and transmit the location of the downed aircraft to rescuers. Unless Ben was jamming all frequencies off the island (He could not have been since he was transmitting and receiving signals himself through the Flame station and he was using a radio dish not a laser transmitter) then the signal should have gotten through. (And why jam Danielle Russo’s signal anyway? Why not just go to the radio tower and turn it off?)

All of this leaves us with the conclusions that either the aircraft was brought down by some unknown cause other than an EM pulse or, if an EM pulse did bring down 815, it was not the kind of EM phenomena that we are familiar with. This may be plausible because the second pulse, caused by Desmon’s turning of the failsafe key, turned the sky purple…something not associated with an EM pulse of any power.

My contention is that the pulse which caused the breakup and crash of flight 815 was not a classical Electromagnetic pulse but was either a gravimetric pulse or a tachyon pulse.

My less-preferred of the two theories is the gravimetric pulse that would have been caused by a sudden and powerful fluctuation in the local gravity field which 815 had the bad timing and misfortune of flying through. If different parts of the aircraft were subjected to different gravity fields, the difference of gravity’s “pull” on different parts of the aircraft at the same time could stress the airframe sufficiently to cause it to break up. This is exactly the same phenomenon that causes an asteroid to break up when it gets too close to a planet. The gravity on the side of the asteroid closer to the planet is subjected to greater gravity than the side further away and this “tidal force” as it is called, causes the asteroid to disintegrate. This type of effect would have no affect on the electronics of the aircraft and the initial, pre-breakup drop in altitude of 815 could be attributed to bad luck and powerful turbulence if not a sudden increase in gravity. Inn addition, gravity is more likely to break up 815 than just magnetism (a.k.a. a giant Acme Magnet pointed at the aircraft) because modern airliners are built primarily out of aluminum, titanium and plastic. While all of the metal on the aircraft would conduct electromagnetic energy, very little of it would be affected by plain old magnetic fields as the metal in aircraft are mostly non-ferrous and non-magnetic.

By far, my preferred theory as to what caused the downing of flight 815 is that it flew into a tachyon field. To understand this, you have to know just what a tachyon is. We live in a universe where no physical object can travel at or beyond the speed of light. This is sometimes called the light barrier and is part of the very fabric of our universe. But on the other side of this “light barrier’ are theoretical particles which cannot travel SLOWER than the speed of light. These particles are not directly observable in our universe and generally do not enter our universe as we do not enter theirs. Also they are postulated to affect the passage of time and may actually move backwards in time on their side of the light barrier as we move forward in time on our side of the barrier These are not made up, sci-fi gimmicks either. They are valid mathematical constructs and nothing in the world of physics prevents them from existing. And remember, in physic, anything which is not mathematically ruled out, can exist even if we cannot directly observe them. Also remember that black holes, neutrinos and even atoms were theorized to exist long before they were ever observed.

So here we go…815 flies into a tachyon field. When it does, parts of the aircraft experience “chronological disassociation” In other words, different parts of the aircraft are in different times and it tears 815 apart. This affect would not have to be very strong to bring down a speeding aircraft as something traveling 300 mph would cover 440 feet per second. If different sections of the aircraft were in different times at the same instant, they would be briefly disconnected from the adjoining sections, causing the airframe to completely fail. Even if the aircraft was flying at a constant speed, any minor variations in the speed (down to a difference of a thousandth of a millimeter per second) or altitude would cause the positions of the time-shifted sections to be different when the effect ended. Think of it as cutting sections off the airplane for just a split second while it is in flight. Even if you tried to rejoin them a tenth of a second later, the sections “cut apart” would have traveled 44 feet at 300 mph. A gap of a billionth of an inch and you would not be able to reconnect the sections which would be more than enough to cause it to come completely apart.

In sci-fi, tachyons are associated with time travel, though physicist say that this might not work for physical time travel. They do, however, postulate that if tachyons are proven to exist they could be used for communication at speeds faster than that of light. Unfortunately, the results of this type of communication at faster than light speeds could trigger time paradoxes and causality violations. As an example, you are about to use your tachyon radio to communicate with the colony orbiting Alpha Centauri which is 4.3 light years away. But before you even send your transmission, your tachyon radio receives a reply to your question! The answer was, therefore, sent before you even transmitted the question. This is a causality violation and it happens because tachyons only move faster than the speed of light and as a result, may only move backwards in time.

How does this relate to the breakup of flight 815 and the other various oddities as seen on Lost? Well it would explain how the aircraft broke apart without causing the negative effects of an EM pulse on electronics. It wouldn’t directly explain the skies turning purple when Desmond turned the failsafe key in the Swan Station but we know that such an event would not be caused by an EM pulse! It could explain the “whispers” and visions experienced by the Losties as they could be auditory and visual manifestations from different times encroaching on the present. Since these manifestations seen by more than one person they are not hallucinations but must be real. Whether they are from the past or the future, they could be explained by a particle which moves differently in time than particles in our universe do.

Also explained would be Desmond’s apparent time-shifting. If it was a tachyon pulse emitted when he turned the failsafe key, he was at ground zero and subjected to the full force of the phenomena. As a result, his consciousness may have time-shifted. Since tachyon particles might only move backwards in time and are less capable of physically transporting an object, then they could fully explain how Desmond’s consciousness, but not necessarily his body, was able to move back and forth between time periods. He was most strongly affected by the time-shifting when he first turned the failsafe key and was also then affected even more strongly when he was flown through some type of storm when traveling to the freighter. In this occurrence, however, he was also apparently physically transported in time which could have compounded his reaction and caused the severe disorientation and (let’s call it) time-travel sickness. In effect, he would be suffering the effects of a causality violation. His current consciousness was communicating with a future one which then temporarily “overlapped” or took over his current one.

I also believe that a tachyon field may be responsible for the amazing healing powers of the island by, perhaps, moving a sufferer to an earlier energy-state or even an actual physical state before the condition existed. For example, Locke’s body move back to a state before he had his back broken or Rose’s body moves back to a time before she developed terminal cancer. While I find this less plausible than a tachyon pulse bringing down flight 815 it is a possibility to be considered

The anomaly once under study by those at the Swan Station apparently emits some type of time-altering field around the island and since no current known form of radiation, electromagnetic or otherwise, can explain it, the next logical and scientific candidate would be a tachyon field. I think this fits nicely into what we’ve seen on the island and unless we evoke magic or some other pseudo-scientific explanation, tachyons are our best fit/best guess so far to explain the varied phenomena we‘ve witnessed.

Key characters

Short Name	Full Name	Episodes	Theories
Desmond	Desmond David Hume	2.23, 3.17, 4.5	859
Jack	Jack Shephard	1.1, 1.5, 2.11, 1.11, 1.16, 1.20, 3.9, 3.22, 3.1, 4.10, 4.12, & 3” href=”/episodes/theres-no-place-home-parts-2-3/”>4.13	1459
Kate	Katherine “Kate” Austen	3.6, 1.2, 1.3, 2.9, 1.12, 1.16, 1.22, 3.15, 4.4, 4.12	713
Sayid	Sayid Jarrah	2.14, 1.9, 3.11, 4.3, 4.12	390
Walt	Walter “Walt” Lloyd	2.2, 1.14	350

Key episodes

#	Title	Aired	Central character	Theories
3.22	Through The Looking Glass	5-23-2007	Jack	1252
3.8	Flashes Before Your Eyes	2-14-2007	Penny	233
3.3	Further Instructions	10-18-2006	John	122
1.2	Pilot, Part 2	9-29-2004	Kate, Charlie	205
1.1	Pilot, Part 1	9-24-2004	Jack	366

Key events

Theme	Relevant Episodes	Theories
Jack sees his father on the island	1.4	217
Locke Can Walk		289

Key locations

Theme	Relevant Episodes	Theories
The Swan station	2.20, 2.23, 2.14, 2.17, 2.1, 2.2, 1.11, 3.3, 3.8	470

Comments