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Just One Second Out of Sync: Difference between revisions
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This is a bit difficult to figure out with most models of how time works. Let's say time is a horizontal line. In this case moving it to the left or to the right should result in the same line. As a consequence, the object you are trying to hide won't disappear at all, only get a second older or younger. In universes with branching timelines, your precious item may be placed on a different branch, but then again, people in that parallel universe can still interact with it. Possibly, it's analogous to putting it in a different "boat" in the same "river"; you're both traveling through the timestream at the same speed, but it's "ahead" of you, so you can never catch up with it. How that works in the physical world is anyone's guess.
If the geometry of time in your universe resembles a [[Timey
Possible uses include:
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* Playing hide-and-seek with other time travelers
* Planting booby traps
* [[Doctor Who
The amount doesn't have to be exactly one second, but as a general rule of thumb, it should fall within the lifetime of the characters involved, so hiding at the beginning/end of the universe doesn't count. (Unless it happened just a second ago.)
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Another theory could be that the phrase refers to time locking, in which such an item is locked into a single second of time. It only exists at that point in time and no other so long as it is out of sync.
Contrast [[The Slow Path]], [[Portal to
{{examples
== Anime & Manga ==
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== Comic Books ==
* IDW's ''[[
* This was how Thanos kept [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]] from interfering with him in the storyline that introduced him back in the 1970s.
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== Literature ==
* In [[David Eddings]]' ''[[The Elenium]]'' series, it is mentioned that different gods have different ways to appear invisible. One of the troll gods uses time in this way.
* In ''[[
* ''Collision with Chronos'' by Barrington J. Bayley. A criminal in a city of time-twisters is sentenced to exile a second in the past. This is ''total'' exile: life only exists in the present moment, with our structures slowly decaying either side of the moving wave of "now".
* Has been used in the ''[[
* In C.S. Lewis' [[Space Trilogy]], Eldils are ephemeral to us due to this type of reason.
* In Reginald Bretnor's story "The Gnurrs Come From The Voodvork Out", when Papa Schimmelhorn is asked where the gnurrs came from, he explains that they came from yesterday. When someone objects that they weren't here yesterday, he says that, then, they were in the day before yesterday.
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* [[Clifford Simak]]'s signature trope. He loves writing alternative Earths that are between that and alternative history. Other variations have been used too, such as hiding a time machine in a second in the past, rendering it unaccessible without the hero's powers of time control.
* In James Valentine's ''Jumpman Rule 1: Don't Touch Anything!'', time travelers use this concept to remain invisible as they observe historical moments of interest. In theory, staying several milliseconds out of sync with the time zone they are visiting, they will not be seen by the 'natives', and as long as they don't touch anything they won't screw with history. Unfortunately...
* In [[L. Ron Hubbard]]'s ''[[Mission Earth]]'', the Voltarian Confederacy uses the time-warping powers of harnessed black holes to shift their entire capital city thirteen minutes into the future, rendering it invulnerable because any aggressors would find nothing to target. How local traffic is able to drive in and out of this time shift without incident while enemy ordnance is ''not'' is never explained.
== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[
** The original use was in the classic-series serial ''The Keeper of Traken'', in which the Master did it to the Doctor's TARDIS to cut off his escape route.
** In ''The End Of Time'', the Doctor hides the TARDIS from [[The Master (trope)|The Master]] this way.
** In "The Stolen Earth", the Daleks use this to create a pocket universe for their [[The End of the World
** Sontarans hide the components of the ATMOS system that spew a gas that suffocates humans but Sontarans can be cloned in in "The Sontaran Stratagem" this way.
* The aliens in the ''[[Star Trek:
* ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' uses it a few times.▼
▲* The aliens in the ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' episode "Time's Arrow" live scant fractions of a second out of phase with the rest of reality.
▲* ''[[Star Trek Voyager]]'' uses it a few times.
** "Year of Hell": The Krenim weapon ship exists outside of normal space-time when the temporal core is online. This doesn't render the ship invisible, but makes it immune to conventional weaponry. Also, the crew doesn't age in this state. There's also the more primitive Krenim torpedos, which use a similar effect to bypass shields.
** "Relativity": Seven of Nine is sent through time by the timeship USS Relativity (which is from the 29th century) to save Voyager from being destroyed by a strange device that is "out of phase" with normal time, since she is the only one that can see it due to her ocular implant.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* The D&D gives us a temporal flincher, a bizzare monster which pulls its victim out of synch. It is a bit different since the anomaly only works for several subjective rounds but the flincher is still alone with its victim until the rest of the party catch up.
** There are also several spells and abilities that function in a similar manner to this, such as the obvious Time Stop spell, or one of the uses of Wish/Miracle.
== Video Games ==
* This is used in combination with [[San Dimas Time]] in ''[[
* Some objects in ''[[Singularity]]'' are slightly out of phase with the present time. These are detectable with the "chronolight" function of the TMD, and it can also pull them back into sync for your use. Phased things include boxes for puzzle-solving, {{spoiler|Renko's footsteps from his last attempt to fix the problem,}} and even explosive barrels to chuck at enemies.
* This trope occurs in an ''[[Achron]]'' tactic called "Timewave Dodging". If a unit dies in the past, any passing [[Delayed Ripple Effect|timewaves]] will propagate its nonexistence into the present. By time traveling it right across the approaching timewave, you can prevent it from being wiped out of existence. Weirdly enough, you're not hiding from other time travelers; you're hiding from causality itself!
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== Webcomics ==
* ''[[Mezzacotta|Square Root of Minus Garfield]]'' has one in [http://www.mezzacotta.net/garfield/?comic=310 this strip], which discusses the trope. This page was then created by the maker of that strip.
* Parodied in [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2009/01/22/episode-1085-hardly-knew-ye/ this] ''[[
== Western Animation ==
* This is one of the many things that happened to Baxter Stockman in the '80s ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987
== Real Life ==
* This is always happening in reality, since time flows at different rates in different places due to the effects of relativity. GPS satellites, indeed, have to correct for this fact every so often so that they don't get out of synch with receivers on the Earth's surface and lose accuracy. While it does cause things to age at different rates,<ref>an effect that only really becomes prominent in extreme situations, such as flying near the speed of light, near a black hole, [[Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs|or flying near the speed of light near a black hole]]</ref>
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Time Travel Tropes]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:
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