A flux capacitor was the key component of Dr. Emmett Brown's DeLorean time machine in "Back to the Future."
Published Mar 9, 2021
Image Via Miguel Schincariol/AFP via Getty Images ");}else if(is_tablet()){slot_number++;document.write("Advertisment:
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What's TrueThe O'Reilly Auto Parts website includes a listing for a flux capacitor device.
What's FalseThe company does not actually sell such a device.
O'Reilly Automotive is one of America's largest retailers of auto parts, operating well over 5,000 O'Reilly Auto Parts stores across the U.S.
A behemoth auto-parts chain is perhaps not one of the more likely places one would look to for wry humor, but the company's website does host at least one in-joke -- searching the site for part number "121g" turns up a listing for a flux capacitor, the device invented by Doc Brown in the popular 1985 film "Back to the Future" that enabled Marty McFly to drive a DeLorean DMC-12 30 years into the past:
The 121g part number, of course, refers to 1.21 gigawatts, the amount of power required in the film to activate the device:
https://youtu.be/I5cYgRnfFDA
The O'Reilly website also offers some useful caveats and warnings to potential users of a flux capacitor, including that plutonium (needed to create a reaction that generates the 1.21 gigawatts of power needed by the device) is "not available at O'Reilly Auto Parts," and that the flux capacitor "requires the stainless steel body of a 1981-1983 DeLorean DMC-12 to properly function":
- Time Travel at your own RISK!
- Plutonium is required to properly operate the flux capacitor
o Plutonium is used by the onboard nuclear reactor which then powers the flux capacitor to provide the needed 1.21 gigawatts of electrical power.
o Plutonium not available at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Please contact your local plutonium supplier. - Flux capacitor requires the stainless steel body of a 1981-1983 DeLorean DMC-12 to properly function.
o Once the time machine travels at 88 mph (142 km/h), light coming from the flux capacitor pulses until it becomes a steady stream of light, at which point time travel begins!
Alas, O'Reilly also informs would-be time-traveling customers that "This item is not available for purchase" and that the listing pictures a "Non-Functional Item Displayed for Entertainment Purposes Only."
David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994 as a creative outgrowth of his wide-ranging interests in a variety of subjects (particularly folklo ... read more
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