Avengers: Endgame exploits time travel and quantum mechanics as it tries to restore the universe
by Michael Milford, The Conversation
At the end of Avengers: Infinity War half the people (including heroes and villains) in the universe were gone in the snap of a finger from Thanos (Josh Brolin).So how can Avengers: Endgame (in cinemas from this week) try to bring them back?
Well, with that tried and tested movie plot device: time travel. Plus a surprising amount of scientific jargon thrown in, including quantum mechanics, Deutsch propositions, eigenvalues and inverted Möbius strips.
But don't think that everything you hear during the movie was created in the minds of some crazy screenwriter. Many of the time-travel concepts in Endgame are connected, at least in name, to recent scientific theory, simulation and speculation.
Let's dive into the science of quantum time travel and discuss whether eigenvalues can really save the universe, but be warned: moderate spoilers ahead.
Time travel 101
The key premise of the movie is that the only thing that can reverse the deaths of half the universe are the things that caused those deaths in the first place: the powerful Infinity Stones.
Problem is, Thanos destroyed these in the present day, so the stones are only available in the past. Retrieving them will require a convoluted journey back in time to multiple locations by the remaining Avengers.
Is time travel actually possible? We've known since Albert Einstein posed his Theory of Special Relativity more than 100 years ago that travel forward in time is relatively easy.
All you need to do is move at close to the speed of light and you can theoretically travel millions or even billions of years into the future within your lifetime.
But could you get back again? This feat appears to be much more difficult. Here are a few challenges and possible solutions.
The grandfather paradox
Travelling back in time can cause apparent logical inconsistencies in reality, like the well-known grandfather paradox.
If you went back in time and killed your grandfather when he was young, then you could never be born, but if you weren't born, then how did you go back and kill him?
Scientists have several theories about these time loops (physicists call them closed timelike curves). Some theories state that such loops are just physically impossible and therefore travel back in time can never happen.
But we know, also thanks to Einstein, that spinning black holes can twist up both space and time, which is why one side of the black hole is brighter than the other in the first picture ever taken of one.
Time travel in the Endgame
In the movie, the characters first make fun of many other time-travel movies such as Back to the Future and the Terminator series where changing your own past and future is possible.
Instead, Endgame goes with the alternative reality idea, where any changes back in time cause a whole new universe to be created, a so-called splitting or branching off of multiple timelines. In physics, this idea is called the Many Worlds Theory.
To avoid this problem, the Avengers plan to borrow the stones from past timelines, use them in the present day, but return them to exactly the same moment once they have finished with them. But will it work?
Enter quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics is mentioned a lot in the movie and there are in fact many emerging theories about quantum time travel, including some that potentially solve the grandfather paradox.
In quantum mechanics, atomic particles are more like indistinct waves of probability. So, for example, you can never know both exactly where a particle is and what direction it's moving. You only know there is a certain chance of it being in a certain place.
A British physicist named David Deutsch, who is mentioned in the movie, combined this idea with the Many Worlds theory, and showed that the grandfather paradox can disappear if you express everything probabilistically.
Like the particles, the person going back in time only has a certain probability of killing their grandfather, breaking the causality loop. This has been simulated successfully.
This might seem strange, and while some of the jargon used in the movie may seem a little over the top, you can be sure that real quantum science is even stranger than movie makers could ever imagine. It's clear that even scientists are struggling to make sense of the implications of quantum theory.
Terminology for effect
The time-travel theory scenes (of which there are several) are filled with technical jargon, some out of place, some in the right ballpark.
Here are a few of the terms we hear in the movie concerning time travel:
Eigenvalues: In discussing their approach to time travel, characters Tony Stark and Bruce Banner mention eigenvalues. This is most likely an example of movie maths talk for effect, as eigenvalues are a fairly low-level (basic) concept in linear algebra.
Verdict: A case of the math mumbles
Planck scale: The Planck scale is all about very small things. Planck length, time and mass are base units used in physics. A Planck length is 1.616 × 10−35m. That's very small.
It is the distance that light travels in one unit of Planck time – which is also a very small amount of time. Given the movie is about quantum mechanics-based time travel, chatting Planck scales don't seem too far off topic.
Verdict: Planck has a point.
Möbius strip. Credit: Wikimedia/David Benbennick, CC BY-SA
Inverted Möbius strip
The time-travel jargon also discusses inverting a Möbius strip. A normal Möbius strip is a surface with only one side. You can create one easily by taking a strip of paper, twisting it once, and then sticking it together.
Although a Möbius strip has a range of interesting mathematical properties, its technical relevance to time travel is tenuous, beyond some high-level attempts to explain the grandfather paradox.
Verdict: Twisting theory a little.
Verdict
From a scientific perspective, it's intriguing to have a new movie with such a heavy plot foundation in time travel, and the movie doesn't pull many punches in diving straight into both the jargon and implications of various time-travel scenarios.
While some of the mathematical terminology is clearly there for effect, the plot makes a reasonable effort to adhere to current high level-thinking about time travel – to a point.
Time travel is one of those captivating scientific concepts that is perhaps furthest from implementation by scientists, and so its pivotal role in a movie about superheroes who can fly, go subatomic, destroy universes and change reality is perhaps particularly apt.
Explore further Travel through wormholes is possible, but slow
Provided by The Conversation
Avengers: Endgame review – a spectacular end to Infinity Saga and fitting finale for fans
Emma Kelly Tuesday 23 Apr 2019
Inverted Möbius strip
The time-travel jargon also discusses inverting a Möbius strip. A normal Möbius strip is a surface with only one side. You can create one easily by taking a strip of paper, twisting it once, and then sticking it together.
Although a Möbius strip has a range of interesting mathematical properties, its technical relevance to time travel is tenuous, beyond some high-level attempts to explain the grandfather paradox.
Verdict: Twisting theory a little.
Verdict
From a scientific perspective, it's intriguing to have a new movie with such a heavy plot foundation in time travel, and the movie doesn't pull many punches in diving straight into both the jargon and implications of various time-travel scenarios.
While some of the mathematical terminology is clearly there for effect, the plot makes a reasonable effort to adhere to current high level-thinking about time travel – to a point.
Time travel is one of those captivating scientific concepts that is perhaps furthest from implementation by scientists, and so its pivotal role in a movie about superheroes who can fly, go subatomic, destroy universes and change reality is perhaps particularly apt.
Explore further Travel through wormholes is possible, but slow
Provided by The Conversation
Avengers: Endgame review – a spectacular end to Infinity Saga and fitting finale for fans
Emma Kelly Tuesday 23 Apr 2019
Endgame is the perfect ending for fans (Picture: Marvel) After 22 films, 11 years and countless spoilers from Mark Ruffalo and Tom Holland, the finale of the Infinity Saga is finally here.
And Avengers: Endgame is the perfect payoff for all devotees of the MCU. There’s basically been a countdown to Endgame since Infinity War ended, with more pressure on the finale than any film I can remember in recent years.
It doesn’t just act as a sequel to Infinity War – it’s the bookend to an entire era of movies, and possibly a goodbye to some of the MCU’s favourite heroes; it’s well documented that Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth and Scarlet Johannson’s contracts are coming to an end. And it would be understandable if the Russo brothers buckled under the pressure.
It’s hard to meet the expectations of millions of hardcore fans. But somehow, Endgame has managed to give fans the satisfying ending they deserve, as well as providing a stellar superhero movie. Due to the threat of Thanos (and, you know, Marvel and Disney) I can’t actually say that much about Endgame – nor do I want to.
But here’s what we already know, thanks to trailers – the movie picks up right after the Thanos snap, and our remaining heroes are trying to formulate a plan to retrieve the Infinity Stones, reverse the snap and bring half the universe back from the dust.
Anything else I say would be a massive spoiler, and you’re better off going into Endgame blind. Even Ruffalo and Holland have managed to keep the plot under wraps, so make the most of the ignorance. But what I can say is that fans of the MCU won’t be disappointed.
What the Marvel films do best are a) battle scenes and b) comedy and those are in abundance in Endgame. Chris Hemsworth is, as always, on top form as Thor, and delivers some laugh out loud moments throughout the script; as does Paul Rudd as the decidedly clueless Scott Lang/Ant-Man. And there’s scenes with Bruce Banner/Hulk (Ruffalo) that hark back to his Thor: Ragnarok days – aka the best era for Hulk.
Pretty much everybody from the OG Avengers gets to shine in Endgame, and make no mistake – for all of the additional crossovers that Infinity War brought us, this is an Avengers movie. The focus is on Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, Hulk and Hawkeye, and that’s exactly how it should be in the finale. You can really feel the connection in the gang, and it’s quite evident that this isn’t only the Avengers’ final outing in the MCU, but possibly this group of actors’ too.
Unfortunately, this does lead to one or two schmaltzy moments that disrupted the flow of the movie – emotion is fine (‘Mr Stark, I don’t feel so good’) but one particular moment veers on soppy, which seems at odds with the rest of the film. This is teamed with one particular character climax which left me a tad disappointed.
Endgame is predominantly fan service, and this could be seen as a good or bad thing. Some of my favourite moments were callbacks to previous films or little in-jokes that will be a treat for MCU fans, but for the casual movie fan, may be off-putting or even a bit confusing; a knowledge of the last 21 films is needed for the bulk of the plot.
Climaxes fans have been calling for are all tied up, and while satisfying, I’m not sure some of it really contributed to making Endgame a great movie. But the whole package does make it great. I cheered, I gasped, I clapped, I laughed, I started whooping with strangers. There’s nothing more joyous than watching a film people truly care about in a cinema, and I doubt Marvel fans will find a more enjoyable cinema experience – even if you do have to limit your fizzy drink intake due to the three hour runtime (which, honestly, didn’t feel as long as I thought, although 15-20 minutes could easily have been shaved off). Prepare to laugh, to cheer, and to have the rug pulled out from under you – but mostly, prepare for a satisfying ending for a beloved saga. Is it perfect? No. But neither are our heroes.
WTF
‘AVENGERS: ENDGAME’ TICKETS SELL FOR $15,000 ON EBAY
But does that include snacks?
By Whitney Shoemaker
-April 7, 2019
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[photo via YouTube]
Avengers: Endgame tickets went on sale this past Tuesday, sending fans into a frenzy and practically breaking the internet as we all tried to snag pre-sale tickets to the highly anticipated MCU film. The overwhelming demand made the ticket buying process far from easy and it wasn’t long before those who did manage to grab tickets had them posted on eBay for an absurd amount of money.
A quick eBay search will show Endgame ticket prices ranging anywhere from $124.99 to a whopping $15,000. No one in their right mind would pay that much for movie tickets, right?
It looks like some Marvel fans are taking the “whatever it takes” mentality to an entirely new level.
Apparently there are two die-hard Marvel fans willing to do (and pay) whatever it takes in order to see the Infinity Saga finale on opening day—even if that means dishing out an insane $15,000 for a pair of tickets.
Does that include popcorn and snacks?
Avengers: Endgame tickets went on sale this past Tuesday, sending fans into a frenzy and practically breaking the internet as we all tried to snag pre-sale tickets to the highly anticipated MCU film. The overwhelming demand made the ticket buying process far from easy and it wasn’t long before those who did manage to grab tickets had them posted on eBay for an absurd amount of money.
A quick eBay search will show Endgame ticket prices ranging anywhere from $124.99 to a whopping $15,000. No one in their right mind would pay that much for movie tickets, right?
It looks like some Marvel fans are taking the “whatever it takes” mentality to an entirely new level.
Apparently there are two die-hard Marvel fans willing to do (and pay) whatever it takes in order to see the Infinity Saga finale on opening day—even if that means dishing out an insane $15,000 for a pair of tickets.
Does that include popcorn and snacks?
The eBay listing includes two tickets to see Avengers: Endgame on Friday, April 26 at AMC in West Orange, New Jersey.
According to ComicBook.com, the original listing had the tickets sitting at $2,500 with no active bids earlier this week. However, someone opted to use the “Buy It Now” feature and snatch the ticket pair for $15,000.
But, WHY?!
[Photo via eBay]
We’re really hoping they’ll have enough cash left over for snacks, especially considering the film has a leaked runtime of over three hours.
It’s a pretty impressive runtime considering the directors recently confirmed that there’s fake footage in the trailers.
Avengers: Endgame hits theaters April 26.
If you’re looking for a cheaper way to prove you’re a die-hard MCU fan, you can snag a Marvel Movie Marathon ticket from AMC. The chain confirmed they would be showing a 59 hour marathon of all 22 Marvel films leading up to Endgame at select theaters later this month.
The latest ads for Avengers: Endgame continue to hype the newest installment up without spoiling much (as usual), and there’s now an interesting trailer covering the MCU’s entire history in the span of two minutes.
A day before Avengers: Endgame opens in the United States, some people have managed to see the final film early, either through premiere events or because it opened in their territory already. Unsurprisingly, there are no references to characters that Marvel gained as a result of Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox. Perhaps more surprisingly, there are also no scenes after the credits.
If the initial box office projections prove to be accurate, Avengers: Endgame‘s opening weekend could result in the kind of box office opening that is hitherto undreamt of, as Doctor Strange would say.
Avengers: Endgame' Already Broke The Record For The Biggest Box-Office Opening In China Of All Time
TRAVIS CLARK
APR 24, 2019
"Avengers: Endgame" has already made $107.2 million in China, where it opened on Wednesday.It's on its way to becoming the biggest Hollywood release in China ever."Endgame" has already shattered pre-sale records in the US, and is poised to break the opening-weekend box-office record when it debuts this weekend.
"Avengers: Endgame" is breaking pre-sale records in the US ahead of its release this weekend, but the movie is also already dominating in China.
The movie opened two days head of the US in China on Wednesday, and has already made $107.2 million, well on its way to becoming the country's biggest Hollywood movie of all time. It's China's biggest opening day ever.READ MORE: Every Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, ranked by how much money they made at the worldwide box officeChinese movie-ticket service Maoyan is projecting "Endgame" to gross $521 million during its entire Chinese run, according to Variety, which would make it the highest-grossing non-Chinese film ever.
In the US, the movie has shattered multiple pre-sale records. It's ticket service Fandango's biggest first-day and first-week seller, and has sold five times as many tickets through the service as last year's "Avengers: Infinity War." It's also AMC Theatres' biggest pre-sale movie of all time, and the company is keeping 17 theaters open around the clock Thursday through Sunday to accommodate the high audience demand.
The movie is expected to break "Infinity War's" US opening weekend record. It grossed $258 million in its debut, but "Endgame" is expected to gross at least $280 million, and could even reach $300 million.
Could "Endgame" become the biggest movie of all time? It will have to beat "Avatar," the current record holder, which grossed $2.8 million worldwide. "Infinity War" grossed $2.05 billion.
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According to ComicBook.com, the original listing had the tickets sitting at $2,500 with no active bids earlier this week. However, someone opted to use the “Buy It Now” feature and snatch the ticket pair for $15,000.
But, WHY?!
[Photo via eBay]We’re really hoping they’ll have enough cash left over for snacks, especially considering the film has a leaked runtime of over three hours.
It’s a pretty impressive runtime considering the directors recently confirmed that there’s fake footage in the trailers.
Avengers: Endgame hits theaters April 26.
If you’re looking for a cheaper way to prove you’re a die-hard MCU fan, you can snag a Marvel Movie Marathon ticket from AMC. The chain confirmed they would be showing a 59 hour marathon of all 22 Marvel films leading up to Endgame at select theaters later this month.
‘AVENGERS: ENDGAME’ ADS SET THE STAGE FOR MARVEL’S BIGGEST MOVIE EVER
The latest ads for Avengers: Endgame continue to hype the newest installment up without spoiling much (as usual), and there’s now an interesting trailer covering the MCU’s entire history in the span of two minutes.
First up are a trio of new TV Spots, two of which were posted officially by Marvel and the last of which was recorded by a fan in low-resolution quality. The first of these ads features Captain America giving an inspiring speech that Rocket and Ant-Man seem to like a lot, and the second of ad features a couple of extra shots that haven’t been seen previously. Worth noting is that it confirms speculation that, in the second half of the movie, the Avengers split up into smaller teams in order to accomplish some as-of-yet unconfirmed goal, and it seemingly hints that Hawkeye will be a part of the initial mission to go after Thanos right after the Snap:
The third ad features new clips with Hawkeye and Black Widow on the Benatar, prepping a jump to lightspeed. There’s also a scene of Hawkeye (as Ronin) getting into a katana duel with a member of the Yakuza, War Machine surprising Ant-Man by landing right in front of him and teasing him for it, Pepper Potts wearing an Arc Reactor, and Iron Man reiterating that their desperate plan is their best hope to save the entire universe, once and for all:
But more interesting is the fact that there’s yet another 2.5-minute advertisement that Marvel have cooked up to commemorate the fact that we’re ten days away from the movie’s release date. The clip features footage from 20 of the 22 films, skipping The Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man: Homecoming (since those are Universal and Sony movies respectively), though some substitute footage is brought in instead. It culminates in one message, a dialogue between Captain America and Iron Man, echoing one of the best lines from the original team-up movie:
You can catch it below:
While the trailer is largely composed of shots from previous movies, it’s interesting to see how much it emphasizes dusted characters alongside the surviving ones. Also confirmed to return is the Sanctuary II, Thanos’s massive ship that he used to kill tons of Asgardian refugees and to take the Space Stone from Loki. It seemed like it was way too big a setpiece to simply not include in the final battle, and I can’t wait to see what they do with it.
‘AVENGERS: ENDGAME’ HAS NO SCENES AFTER THE CREDITS, NOR ANY REFERENCES TO MARVEL CHARACTERS PREVIOUSLY LICENSED TO FOX
A day before Avengers: Endgame opens in the United States, some people have managed to see the final film early, either through premiere events or because it opened in their territory already. Unsurprisingly, there are no references to characters that Marvel gained as a result of Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox. Perhaps more surprisingly, there are also no scenes after the credits.
Let’s start with the whole details on the characters that fit under the Fox umbrella, which includes a library made up of X-Men, Fantastic Four, Deadpool, Doctor Doom, X-Force, and Silver Surfer, among tons of characters that Fox never touched under their nearly-20-year tenure with their various Marvel licenses. For a while, people speculated that, since the Disney-Fox acquisition was on its way to completion, Marvel would have time to introduce a number of Fox-owned characters into an already-stuffed narrative that was more focused on wrapping up character arcs for existing characters than it was on setting up future sequels. However, if Disney allowed Marvel to do this before the merger was complete, then that could have opened up a massive can of worms that wouldn’t have benefited anyone in the long run and could have even disrupted the acquisition.
Eventually, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige had to weigh in by stating that they wanted to focus on their current half-decade of plans before integrating Fox characters into the mix, and the directors also chimed in by stating that they barely had any time to put X-Men or Fantastic Four characters in the movie even if they wanted to. After this denial, people still didn’t believe Marvel (since they have been dishonest in the past to protect certain secrets) and continued with their speculation that the company was going to rush casting someone that they’d need for 10+ years in a cameo appearance. Well, the movie’s out now, and they weren’t lying – there are no Fox-owned characters in the movie because there is not a post-credits scene to begin with. (And no, they’re not going to add a post-credits scene to the movie after it’s already in circulation.) Marvel have never operated on a need to rush toward anything before, and whatever X-Men plans are going to happen in the future will happen solely on Marvel’s terms.
Multiple people have been able to confirm that Avengers: Endgame does not have a post-credits scene, a mid-credits scene, or anything after the closing shot of the film. The last Marvel Studios movie to not have an after-credits scene was The Incredible Hulk, although this is a special case. The intended post-credits scene of the film (Tony Stark visiting a distraught Thaddeus Ross to tell him about the Avengers Initiative) was moved to just after the intended final shot of the film (Bruce Banner gaining full control over when he can turn into the Hulk) in order to capitalize on the overperformance of that year’s Iron Man. That move also was to help establish that yes, Marvel was officially going forward with a shared universe on film, at a time when not every Marvel movie had something after the credits. It’s still functionally a stinger… Just one that arrives just before the credits start rolling.
But no such scene happens with this movie, because Marvel want to establish the movie as being the closing chapter for the initial version of the Avengers, and they don’t want to undercut it by immediately revealing their plans for the future. There are plenty of hints about where the franchise could go after Endgame, but they’re not the point of this specific film. Part of the journey is the end, and the end is here. We’ll get plenty of Marvel adventures in the years to come, and the Fox characters will be a part of those adventures, but for now, it’s time to reflect upon 11 years of successful films.
‘AVENGERS: ENDGAME’ PROJECTIONS POINT TOWARD INSANE BOX OFFICE GROSS
If the initial box office projections prove to be accurate, Avengers: Endgame‘s opening weekend could result in the kind of box office opening that is hitherto undreamt of, as Doctor Strange would say.
Deadline‘s most recent update on ticket presales in the United States indicate that the concluding chapter of the current Avengers saga has made approximately $120M in ticket presales before the film even had its premiere earlier tonight. Some estimates are even higher, believing that the total presales are in the $140M range. (Note that neither of these figures come from Disney.) Current estimates suggest that in a worst-case scenario, Endgamewould open to $260M to $270M.
However, Deadline are so confident about how well they think that the movie is going to do that they say that a $300M domestic opening is not impossible, so long as every available theater shows Endgame on 5-8 screens a total of 4-5 times a day each to at least 70% capacity. That would translate to mostly-full screenings across some 12,000 screens. It should be noted that while the movie’s 3 hour and 1 minute running time would typically keep it from potentially soaring to these heights, Endgame‘s tracking is so strong across all demographics – at a rate that’s already higher than the already-record-smashing Avengers: Infinity War – that it’s ultimately a non-issue.
Of course, that’s not to say that the international market is slouching, either. China, the largest non-American market, has pre-sold $90M in tickets on the opening day. Of these, an estimated $20M will apply to midnight screenings of the film, which is more than double what the previous record-holder for largest box office opening (The Fate of the Furious) was able to manage.
Chinese total pre-sale of Avengers: Endgame is nearly $90M and would be higher in the last 14 hours. Early estimate for the midnights box office is around $20M, which is more than double of what the previous record holder Furious 8 did($9.1M). #AvengersEndgame
With these kinds of numbers in mind, a $1B opening weekend is not something that can be ruled out at this point. Let that sink in for a moment.
If you want a better chance of seeing it on opening weekend if you haven’t already pre-bought your ticket, or perhaps more than once, then you might be in luck. The Hollywood Reporter adds that 17 AMC locations will be showing the movie non-stop from Thursday to Sunday, with another 18 operating from Thursday to Saturday, and another 29 operating from Thursday to Friday, all to accommodate for this movie’s massive demand. So it seems as though it will be a snap for Marvel to break their previous records; Avengers: Endgame should have no problem matching its predecessor at the box office, possibly even outdoing it in the process.
Avengers: Endgame' Already Broke The Record For The Biggest Box-Office Opening In China Of All Time
TRAVIS CLARK
APR 24, 2019
"Avengers: Endgame" has already made $107.2 million in China, where it opened on Wednesday.It's on its way to becoming the biggest Hollywood release in China ever."Endgame" has already shattered pre-sale records in the US, and is poised to break the opening-weekend box-office record when it debuts this weekend.
"Avengers: Endgame" is breaking pre-sale records in the US ahead of its release this weekend, but the movie is also already dominating in China.
The movie opened two days head of the US in China on Wednesday, and has already made $107.2 million, well on its way to becoming the country's biggest Hollywood movie of all time. It's China's biggest opening day ever.READ MORE: Every Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, ranked by how much money they made at the worldwide box officeChinese movie-ticket service Maoyan is projecting "Endgame" to gross $521 million during its entire Chinese run, according to Variety, which would make it the highest-grossing non-Chinese film ever.
In the US, the movie has shattered multiple pre-sale records. It's ticket service Fandango's biggest first-day and first-week seller, and has sold five times as many tickets through the service as last year's "Avengers: Infinity War." It's also AMC Theatres' biggest pre-sale movie of all time, and the company is keeping 17 theaters open around the clock Thursday through Sunday to accommodate the high audience demand.
The movie is expected to break "Infinity War's" US opening weekend record. It grossed $258 million in its debut, but "Endgame" is expected to gross at least $280 million, and could even reach $300 million.
Could "Endgame" become the biggest movie of all time? It will have to beat "Avatar," the current record holder, which grossed $2.8 million worldwide. "Infinity War" grossed $2.05 billion.
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