Time Travel

[Virus_NCU]

TIME TRAVEL
By: Jason Grant aKa Virus

There may be no other concept that captures the imagination more than the idea of time travel: the ability to travel to any point in the past or future. What could be cooler? You could jump into your time machine to go back and see major events in history and talk to the people who were there! Who would you travel back to see? Julius Caesar? Leonardo Da Vinci? You could go back and meet yourself at an earlier age; forward and see how you look in the future. It's these possibilities that have made time travel the subject of so many science fiction books and movies.

It turns out that, in some sense, we are all time travelers. As you sit at your desk, doing nothing more than clicking your mouse, time is traveling around you. The future is constantly being transformed into the past with the present only lasting for a fleeting moment. Everything that you are doing right now is quickly moving into the past: which means we continue to move through time. Interesting isn’t it?

When was the first time you thought about time travel? Ideas of time travel have existed for centuries. However Albert Einstein released his theory of special relativity and laid the foundation for the theoretical possibility of time travel. For full understanding on the world of time travel there are three focuses to look into. Firstly: What is Time? Secondly: The different theories of traversing through time. And thirdly: the paradox of time traveling. As we all know, no one has successfully demonstrated time travel, but no one has been able to rule it out either.

Tick Tock Tick Tock, there goes time, but what is time? Astronomer Carl Sagan said that time is "resistant to simple definition." I would say Sagan is right because lots of us think we know what time is, but it is hard to define. You can not literally see or touch time, but you can see its effects. The evidence that we are moving through time is found in everything, the aging of our bodies, the weathering and crumbling of buildings and the growing of trees. Most of us feel the pressure of time as we are pushed to meet deadlines and make appointments. Our lives are often dictated by what time we need to be somewhere. Most people see time as just a clock or watch, some see it as a fourth dimension of out universe while a few see it as special relativity.

Ask most people to define time and they are likely to look at their watch or a clock. We see time as the ticking of the hands on these devices. We know that there are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year. These are the basic numbers of time that we all learned in grade school.

Time is also defined as being the fourth dimension of our universe. The other three dimensions are of space, including up-down, left-right and backward-forward. Time cannot exist without space, and likewise, space cannot exist without time. According to Einstein this interconnected relationship of time and space is called the space-time continuum, which means that any event that occurs in the universe has to involve both space and time.

So far we have time as just a clock and time as a fourth dimensioned of our universe. Special relativity is another theory by Einstein which only a few believes in. special relativity is basically saying that time slows down as an object approaches the speed of light. This leads many scientists to believe that traveling faster than the speed of light could open up the possibility of time travel to the past as well as to the future. The problem is that the speed of light is believed to be the highest speed at which something can travel, so it is unlikely that we will be able to travel into the past. As an object travels nears the speed of light, its relativistic mass increases until, at the speed of light, it becomes infinite. Accelerating an infinite mass any faster than that is impossible, or at least it seems to be right now.

Seeing time as just a clock or watch will someday change, seeing it as a fourth dimension of out universe is something consider and seeing it as special relativity is something to think about. Time travel in either direction is not as difficult, and the future may one day be a possible destination.

There is a famous saying that says “Time Will Tell”. However time alone will not give you the full understanding of time travel. The other thing to focus on is the different theories of traversing through time. While writers have produced some great ideas for time machines over the years, a real-life time machine has yet to be built. Most theories of time travel don't rely on machines at all. Instead, time travel will likely be done by way of natural phenomena that will transport us instantly from one point in time to another. These space phenomena, which we are not even sure exist, include: Rotating black holes, Wormholes, and Cosmic strings.

[Virus_NCU]

If time travel was possible what are the ways in which we could traverse through time? There are three theories that scientist use to study the possibility of time travel, namely black holes, wormholes and cosmic strings. The cosmic strings theory was later introduced in 1991. Black holes are thought to surround certain celestial objects. Black holes are defined as are cone shaped gravitational holes. Wormholes are considered possible based on Einstein’s theory of relativity, which states that any mass curves space-time. Cosmic strings are large strings of cosmic rays in space with extreme gravitational force. We will be looking at black holes, wormholes and cosmic strings.

When stars that are more than four times the mass of our sun reach the end of their life and have burned up all of their fuel, they collapse under the pressure of their own weight. This implosion creates “black holes,” which have gravitational fields so strong that even light cannot escape. According to Whatis.com a black hole is a region in time and space within which gravity so strong that nothing can escape not even electromagnetic radiation such as visible light. You can think of the shape of a black hole as similar to an ice cream cone. It is large on top and tapers into a point, called a singularity. At the singularity, the laws of physics cease to exist and all matter is crushed beyond recognition. If possible, we can pass through them and exit to a “white” hole. A white hole would have the reverse action of that of a black hole. So, instead of pulling everything into its gravitational force, it would use some sort of foreign matter with negative energy to push everything out and away from it. These white holes would be our way to enter other times and universe.

Scientist believes there could be another type of tunnel-like structure existing in the universe that could be used for a time travel portal. Wormholes, also called Einstein-Rosen Bridges, are considered to have the most potential for time travel if they do exist. Not only could they allow us to travel through time, they could also permit entrance to light-years from Earth in only a fraction of time it would take for us to travel conventional space methods.

In addition to black holes and worm holes there is yet another theory for space travel back and forth through time. This theory uses the idea of cosmic strings, proposed by Princeton physicist, J. Richard Gott in 1991. He theorizes that a spacecraft could be turned into a time machine by using the gravity produced by the two cosmic strings, or the string and black hole, to propel itself into the past. To do this, it would loop around the cosmic strings. However, there is still much speculation as to whether these strings exists, and if so, in what form. Gott himself said that in order to travel back in time every one year, it would take a loop string that contained half the mass-energy of an entire galaxy. And, as with any time machine, you could not go back farther that the point at which the time machine was created.

It is evident that we are moving through time. Time passes us from the future to the past. As we just saw, time is one of the contributing factors of time travel. The other is the theories: black holes, worm holes, and cosmic strings. With the full understanding of time and the time travel theories you are well on your way to travel through time. Please note that I say ‘on your way’ but you’re not off as yet until you understand the problems and danger faced when attempting time traveling. Therefore in addition to Time and theories you need to know the problematic effects.

I have always wondered what will happen if I go back in time and visit myself. I also wonder what I am like in another universe. What would you do or say if someone looking exactly and speaks exactly and does everything exactly like you approach you and say, “Hello I am you from the future.” If we are ever able to develop a workable theory for time travel, we would open up the ability to create very complicated problems called paradoxes. A paradox is defined as something that contradicts itself. We will be looking at the two possible paradoxes of time travel. The two paradoxes of time travel is the grandfather paradox and the parallel universe paradox.

Let's say, for the sake of argument that you could travel back to a time before you were born. The mere fact that you could exist in a time before you were born creates a paradox. If you were born in 1960, how could you exist in 1955? Possibly the most famous paradox is the grandfather paradox. What would happen if a time traveler went back and killed one of his or her ancestors before the traveler was born? If the person killed his or her grandfather, then how could that person be alive to go back and kill his or her grandfather? If we could change the past, it would create an infinite number of paradoxes.

We have just seen what the grandfather paradox is like. Another paradox regarding time travel brings up the idea of parallel universes, or alternative histories. Let's say that you do travel back to meet your grandfather when he was a boy. In the theory of parallel universes, you may have traveled to another universe, one that is similar to ours, but has a different succession of events. For instance, if you were to travel back in time and kill one of your ancestors, you've only killed that person in one universe, which is no longer the universe that you exist in. And if you then try to travel back to your own time, you may end up in another parallel universe and never be able to get back to the universe you started in.

In addition to the questions of paradoxes, what about the challenges to be faced with Parallel Universes? If you killed someone in one universe they will still exist in another. What will happen when you try to get back to your universe? You may just keep ending up in a universe different from yours and get lost. What will the feeling be like if you met with yourself in another universe? What will the experience be like? These questions and more are what we will ask when it comes to time travel

The idea here is that every action causes the creation of a new universe, and that there are an infinite number of universes that exist. When you killed your ancestor, you created a new universe, a universe that was identical to your own up until the time you changed the original succession of events. It is phenomenon like these that led us to face the consequences of time travel. Having a visual observation on a black hole or a worm hole will build fear; the fear of being crushed to death at the cone. Until we see someone enters and exited one of these then we will be able to alleviate the fear.

If you haven’t thought of time travel before them now is the time to. The idea has been around for centuries and it will not cease. Scientist and other brainpans are working assiduously to make this possible. These people already know and understand the focuses of time travel. In the center of their researches they place these focuses: Time, Method of travel, and the Issues to be faced with. Well… we know no one has successfully demonstrated time travel or is able to rule it out, but considering the speed to witch time is moving along with the development of technology. Soon we will be able see this in our time.

Confused yet? Welcome to the thoughts of time travel. There was once when we were only able to travel on land. People; then seek ways to travel by air. In today’s world you can see how successful they were. Today there are around 100 flights daily; everyone feeling comfortable traveling on boing airlines. In tomorrows world it would be the same with time travel. Just imagine how complicated the ticket prices will be.

Research Support: hows stuff works dot com: subjects(black holes, worm holes, parallel universe,Cosmic stings, special relativity)

[MadHacker]

Seriously virus its a very Intresting thought thank you for that Article

ssshh I think he be smoking the same tree as xenocrates

[Nemesis G4]

Time Travel is relative to the theory of Teleportation. What thwy are trying to achieve is the shortest distance from one point to another. In this case from one time period to another. Try to view it in this light. You have a blank sheet of paper in your hand, one end is point A and the ohter end is point B. The shorthest distance between point A and point B is to trverse the length of the paper i.e move object/etc from A along the path to B.

Thinking outside the box.. what Scientist hope can result in teleportation and eventually time travel is not the traverse the distance from point A to B but instead do the following... fold the paper to allow point A to touch point B without creasing the paper but keeping a uniform structure. What this does is to operate within the laws of time/space but creates a shorter distance by actually moving one end to the other.. all based on the laws of nature.

The only problem with this is that they cant physically achieve it as yet. It is a similar concept to that of the television. You see.. a live broadcast in Australia is televised and we watch it here in Jamaica. But what we fail to realise is that the Australians are on a different time zone from us and are probable a day before or behind us by some hours. Yes! didn't realise that did you. Well it is the same concept without the illusion of television. How do we get an individual from one time zone to another without breaking the laws of nature while adhering to the rules of gravity.

[Virus_NCU]

Thinking outside the box.. what Scientist hope can result in teleportation and eventually time travel is not the traverse the distance from point A to B but instead do the following... fold the paper to allow point A to touch point B without creasing the paper but keeping a uniform structure. What this does is to operate within the laws of time/space but creates a shorter distance by actually moving one end to the other.. all based on the laws of nature.

this actually fits the description of parallel universe.

[leoandru]

Ok so lets say time travel is possible, suppose i could travel back to the very day i was born, armed with the fact that my existence on earth was a horrible experience i decided to kill my baby self. If i killed myself when i was a bady how would i have grown up to come back to kill myself in the first place?

[Xenocrates]

It is not likely that you can travel back in time. It is physically impossible. You can only travel forward, but only through a wormhole. For to time travel, you'd have to outspeed light - which is scientifically impossible for solid mass. However, if space is folded around the object, time will be folded as well and you will fall forward into the future.

Time travel has a massive problem though: The vastness of space.

Everytime you look up into the night sky, you are looking at light which left those stars thousands of years ago. You are literally looking at the past - and that light was moving at light speed. For all we know, those stars have probably long ceased to exist. I remember one article about a supernova which happened about the time of Moses but the light of which was just reaching earth in 1979 - an illustration of the sheer vastness of space. When we figure out how to make a wormhole big enough through which to fit a ship, we can start thinking about Time Travel. In fact, time travel will be synonymous with taking a trip to a distant star system at the edge of the galaxy. For every time you warp to the edge of the galaxy, or some gargantuan distance across space, you literally jump forward in time in massive quantities.

The problem is that the time you loose will be lost forever. Warping to the galactic fringe might save you a thousand year trip at light speed. But thousands more years may pass on earth by the time you get back 5 minutes later. So time travel has a massive shortcoming: it's a one-way trip.

[Virus_NCU]

thats true, the ability to travel back in time would carry forward the paradoxes; as leoandru issue.

[deakie]

the thing is not to travel ourselves but to fold space and time, stretch a optical fibre through the hole into tomorrow and do all of this in front of the tv.....
now what time does the lottery numbers come again?

[Electrotechnic]

Based on another thread.....we don't need to travel back in time because we will inevitably come back to this same exact moment in time when another electrotechnic is typing in this very same thread using these exact words. By that statement, it means that traveling back in time is not impossible because time is a circle so the only thing we have to do is find a way to conserve our memories......so that when we come back to this point in time, 200 million years from now we can ultimately get a message to ourselves so we can know tomorrow's lotto number thus alternating the state of the space and time continium and thus destroying the fabric of time and hence civilisation as we know it......

Wow....man really IS heading down a path of destruction......