[b]Introduction[/b]
The first thing about time travel we have to understand is that our traditional views of time are incorrect. We have to think about time as a space-time continuum that includes at least the three special dimensions (Height, Width, Length) and the single time dimension (time).
Something of interest with the time space continuum is that it is hugely affected by large objects. A planet or star resting on it actually has the effect of causing a dent in space-time like this.
[IMG]http://i52.tinypic.com/27zaws6.png[/IMG]
(Also of note is that this effect is what causes gravitational attraction between masses).
[b]Method 1:Velocity[/b]
The first and most well proven method of time travel is velocity. Now this method is the “simplest” method of time travel and basically it involves moving faster to travel into the future. Now this method works due the difference in the way light is perceived by a stationary observer compared to some one traveling at a high velocity. Now if I’m in a car and I have an LED light on the dashboard that is moving up and down I will see it moving up and down in the car but to a stationary observer out of the car the light will actually appear to move in a zig zag pattern like this.
[IMG]http://i53.tinypic.com/2e3q53o.png[/IMG]
For the observer the light actually appears to travel further in the same amount of time. Now the speed of light, time and distance are all linked by this equation.
C=d/t where C=speed of light, d=distance and t=time
We know that the speed of light is a constanteverywhere in the universe of 3x10^8m/s. So if for the person in the car the distance travelled d is lower and C is constant then t or time must be lower that for the observer where t must be higher. This means that for someone travelling at a certain speed compared to an observer they experience time at a slower rate. Not by any realistically important amount but enough so that the person in the car actually would travel slightly into the future. This effect has be proven through the use of particle accelerators which can accelerate particles that say normally only last for a few seconds always to near the speed of light and the particles will actually last longer than at rest because they experience time slower.
Unfortunately this effect is not a realistic way to seriously travel into the future yet because the amount of energy required to accelerate a human trillions of time the size of a single particle near the speed of light is more that all of the energy we have available on earth and most likely this solar system. Blame Einstein for this because his formula E=mc^2 means that as you increase the velocity of this human his masses increases so you need more energy to further increase velocity and so on towards infinity.
[b]Method 2:“gravitational lensing effect”[/b]
The next methods to manipulate time come back to the space-time continuum and the distorting effect of mass on it.
The first method is again a method to travel into the future and is a result of the “gravitational lensing effect”. As you get further away from the centre of the earth (i.e. the higher up you go) further away you get from the dip in the time space continuum caused by the earth. This is easier to explain with a diagram so here it is.
[IMG]http://i51.tinypic.com/2r60jly.jpg[/IMG]
From the diagram the red line is light traveling along the space time continuum when it gets to the dip for you higher above the ground it doesn’t have to travel as far as for someone else not as high above the ground. Therefore for you as before t is actually experienced slower so you would travel into the future slightly.
On earth this effect is minimal and for example satellites high in the sky lose a third-of-a-billionth of a second daily. This is basically nothing. In order to travel into the future a lot you would need something that seriously distorts space time and that something is a black hole. A black hole twists and bends and pull space time right down almost infinitely because its singularity (a single point at the centre of the black hole) is so massive. So if you were to orbit around a black hole in a position where the effect is pronounced enough you could travel into the future by a worthwhile amount.
[b]Method 3: Wormholes[/b]
Now these two methods work but they both have a problem and that is that they only allow you to travel forwards in time and not backwards which means one you can’t do all the cool past time travel stuff and two you can come back if you do it.
Unfortunately the ways to do this are purely theoretical but in saying that so where black holes until recently so it is not entirely unlikely that these methods would work.
Wormholes are the first likely candidate. Here’s a artists interpretation of a wormhole.
[IMG]http://i55.tinypic.com/3022src.jpg[/IMG]
Now image if you wanted to travel from one side of the wormhole to the other. You could travel the long way via space-time which is the path light travels or you could go through the wormhole and come out the other side which would be much faster. Now if you did this you would be traveling from one point to another faster than light and it has been theorized that if you travel faster than the speed of light that time would in fact flow backwards.
The problem with wormholes is that they one might not exist and two if they do and only be used in places where they already are.
[b]Method 4:Cosmic Strings[/b]
The other method involves “cosmic strings”. Cosmic strings are theoretical objects that are thinner than an atom but infinitely long and incredibly dense. The idea is that if you get two of these strings near each other the effect they would have on space-time would be this.
[IMG]http://i55.tinypic.com/9vcgtw.png[/IMG]
If you travel as in the diagram you would actually again beat light and therefore be traveling faster than the speed of light and therefore travel back in time.
The problem with this method is that these objects may not exist and two finding to together would be very unlikely considering we can’t even find one.
For both of the methods of travelling back in time all paradoxes are solved by assuming that you travel to an alternate dimension.
[b]Conclusion[/b]
So that’s it that’s all I know atm. As you can see time travel is difficult but with the rate a technological development these days who knows maybe in 50 years’ time we might be able to master these concepts and be able to manipulate time in many ways.
[b]End[/b]
Thanks for reading if you did. If you think I’m wrong feel free to correct me as I would love to expand my knowledge on this topic and any topics similar to it.
-Edit
Many people are bringing up the notion of paradoxes as preventing time travel to the past and they are right these paradoxes do logically disprove the theory of time travel. In order for it to work as theorized you have to assume that any time you travel backwards in time you travel to an alternate universe different from your own original universe so anything you mess up there will have no impact on the future of your universe and therefore no impact on your ability to travel back in time in the first place (i.e grandfather paradox.).
This is good, I've always found this stuff really fascinating. There was a discovery channel show on this and apparently circling around the black hole would technically be impossible obviously because of the gravitational pull.
It just blows your mind thinking about things like this, how matter can be bent and manipulated in such ways that the human mind can't comprehend sometimes. It's scary.
Me and my uncle Rico bought a sweet time machine off the interweb.
[img]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Napoleon-Dynamite-e1278552030884.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i41.tinypic.com/fw0kjn.gif[/img]
Naw just kidding. But why would time travel backwards when you are going faster than light? I know quantum physics is a clusterfuck of "lol wth am i doing", but it seems like that theory was just pulled out of someone's ass. Care to elaborate on that theory?
[highlight](User was banned for this post ("Image Macro" - Craptasket))[/highlight]
Traveling backwards in time isn't possible because of radiation feedback
Only one problem with this.
Traveling faster than the speed of light is scientifically impossible.
according to Einstein, anyway.
[QUOTE=Chernzobog;29392847]
Naw just kidding. But why would time travel backwards when you are going faster than light?[/QUOTE]
One of the things I'm not sure about. Would like to know the physics behind it very much.
[QUOTE=archangel125;29392893]Only one problem with this.
Traveling faster than the speed of light is scientifically impossible.
according to Einstein, anyway.[/QUOTE]
It is but by abusing worm holes or cosmic strings you can take short-cuts in space time that light cannot take allowing you to effectively do you
:science:
I didn't see the word relative. I am disappoint. :colbert:
[editline]24th April 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=archangel125;29392893]Only one problem with this.
Traveling faster than the speed of light is scientifically impossible.
according to Einstein, anyway.[/QUOTE]
relatively*
Didn't use to word but I explained things to that effect a couple of times.
[QUOTE=archangel125;29392893]Only one problem with this.
Traveling faster than the speed of light is scientifically impossible.
according to Einstein, anyway.[/QUOTE]
Well, you could always invent a warp drive, and travel faster than light, while not technically traveling faster than it at all.
Though I wonder how that would work actually, because warp drives are scientifically possible, we just need enough energy to do it, which we don't have yet. I'm pretty sure since space moves instead of you, that time would not dilate. So I assume warp drives could not be used for time travel, only for large distance traveling.
[QUOTE=archangel125;29392893]Only one problem with this.
Traveling faster than the speed of light is scientifically impossible.
according to Einstein, anyway.[/QUOTE]
Bear in mind we're disproving shit erry day.
Lets say time travel was possible. You leave your time frame to go back, lets say 10 years. Do something significant, but doesn't really directly effect your life. You then go back to your original time frame and what happens? The timeline has changed. But who's timeline? Was your starting universe really effected by what you did, or would there be other universes that you jump to, each with a separate time line?
Current time travel theories seem to take into consideration that there are an infinite amount of universes, each with every point in time that has ever happened in our universe. Time travel would essentially be jumping from one universe to another, and then traveling to a new universe where that outcome of you being there was already determined. Nothing would look different to these inhabitants, since it's always been like that. To you it would obviously be a huge shock.
This would mean that If I was to go back 10 minutes into the past, and do so much as displace that air as I step into the new time frame, turn around and go back to my original time frame, it would still be a different universe and time line.
Question remains. What would an observer see from my starting universe. Would I come back, or would a different "me" come back from another universe, or would I simply never return?
Time travel? No thanks.
[QUOTE=Dark-Energy;29392942]Well, you could always invent a warp drive, and travel faster than light, while not technically traveling faster than it at all.
Though I wonder how that would work actually, because warp drives are scientifically possible, we just need enough energy to do it, which we don't have yet. I'm pretty sure since space moves instead of you, that time would not dilate. So I assume warp drives could not be used for time travel, only for large distance traveling.[/QUOTE]
[URL]http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive[/URL]
unfortunately, I believe it says somewhere in there that you need to be traveling faster than light in order to make one of them
[editline]24th April 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=Master117;29392973]Lets say time travel was possible. You leave your time frame to go back, lets say 10 years. Do something significant, but doesn't really directly effect your life. You then go back to your original time frame and what happens? The timeline has changed. But who's timeline? Was your starting universe really effected by what you did, or would there be other universes that you jump to, each with a separate time line?
Current time travel theories seem to take into consideration that there are an infinite amount of universes, each with every point in time that has ever happened in our universe. Time travel would essentially be jumping from one universe to another, and then traveling to a new universe where that outcome of you being there was already determined. Nothing would look different to these inhabitants, since it's always been like that. To you it would obviously be a huge shock.
This would mean that If I was to go back 10 minutes into the past, and do so much as displace that air as I step into the new time frame, turn around and go back to my original time frame, it would still be a different universe and time line.
Question remains. What would an observer see from my starting universe. Would I come back, or would a different "me" come back from another universe?[/QUOTE]
depends, where did you go to and how did you get "back"?
Traveling back in time with intent of effecting the future to your liking would be basically impossible, because if you accidently bumped into someone, you would disrupt their balls, then when they reproduce, the winning sperm will be different.
[QUOTE=TamTamJam;29393027]Traveling back in time with intent of effecting the future to your liking would be basically impossible, because if you accidently bumped into someone, you would disrupt their balls, then when they reproduce, the winning sperm will be different.[/QUOTE]
Thats Chaos theory for you.
If we had time travel, wouldn't we basically be in the future now?
Think about it.
People would travel back to today or so to see what we did or played that day.
:colbert:
[QUOTE=LinuX;29393043]If we had time travel, wouldn't we basically be in the future now?
Think about it.
People would travel back to today or so to see what we did or played that day.
:colbert:[/QUOTE]
You have to assume that you would travel into an alternate dimension than your own if you where to travel back in time or else yes paradoxes like this make it impossible.
we all travel forward one relative second per one relative second, but how fast do we all travel in absolute terms?
[QUOTE=Dark-Energy;29392942]Well, you could always invent a warp drive, and travel faster than light, while not technically traveling faster than it at all.
Though I wonder how that would work actually, because warp drives are scientifically possible, we just need enough energy to do it, which we don't have yet. I'm pretty sure since space moves instead of you, that time would not dilate. So I assume warp drives could not be used for time travel, only for large distance traveling.[/QUOTE]
It's funny how you mention this. This is exactly how light travels through our universe. I read a scientific article that stated something along the lines that light itself is stationary relative to itself. It's the universe around it that's moving. In other words, if this is true, then it's not constrained to our fabric of space like everything else is. If anyone can find the article, that would be fantastic.
This is essentially the ticket to essentially teleportation if done right. Move the universe around you, and not moving within the universe. .
This is heavy.
also, think about it. Let a one-dimentional plane represent time. the only way anything can travel is in one direction, no?
While I love science and technology and what not:
Oh, this thread again.
[QUOTE=Master117;29393098]It's funny how you mention this. This is exactly how light travels through our universe. I read a scientific article that stated something along the lines that light itself is stationary relative to itself. It's the universe around it that's moving. In other words, if this is true, then it's not constrained to our fabric of space like everything else is.
This is essentially the ticket to essentially teleportation if done right. Move the universe around you, and not moving within the universe.[/QUOTE]
yes, but if you use that same method on two different objects heading to each other, they'll never meet each other.
[QUOTE=flyschy;29392732] it is actually possible to travel forwards in time (and has been done) [/QUOTE]
Wait what?
Thinking about time travel always makes my head hurt. So many possibilities and paradoxes and how it can and can't be possible.
[QUOTE=archangel125;29392893]Only one problem with this.
Traveling faster than the speed of light is scientifically impossible.
[/QUOTE]
so was basically every single thing in science that is possible today
go back to the 1950's even with an ipod and it has more memory then all of the computers in the world combined.
according to Einstein, anyway
[QUOTE=Mr.Dounut;29393329]so was basically every single thing in science that is possible today
go back to the 1950's even with an ipod and it has more memory then all of the computers in the world combined.
according to Einstein, anyway[/QUOTE]
so you're telling me that time travel exists and there's no possible repercussions of using said technology?
then please solve the grandfather paradox for me.
that was actually a good read.
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