Time travel. Possible?

D · Post by D » Mon Sep 29, 2008 8:38 am

Who of you guys has read books on this subject?
A friend of mine claims that travle into the future is possible if you travel at lightspeed.
Apparantly traveling into the past is not possible, but future is possible.
Is there somebody who can explain this?
My gut says it will never ever even theratically be possible, not under any circumstances.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 8:55 am

You need a DeLorean for that, D. But sadly, they are out of production.

mufunyo · Post by **mufunyo** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 9:07 am

Relativity dictates that time flows slower when you're going at high speed. You can observe this with clocks on very high towers that are rotating around the earth at a higher velocity than clocks on the surface of the earth will get a time skew and will need to be periodically corrected to indicate the correct time.

MathU · Post by **MathU** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 9:20 am

It's already possible.

mr_m0nks · Post by **mr_m0nks** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 10:02 am

I thought it had been proven already that the faster you travel the slower time advances.

I remember reading some time ago about an experiment with two hyper-accurate atomic clocks. they were syncronised, then one was taking up in a fast plane for several hours. when it returned they were out of sync (I cant remember by how much. I doubt it was any more than 1000s of a second)

I'm sure that if such an experiment did happen then there will be some mention of it online somewhere

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 10:13 am

I'm traveling through time just sitting here.

Unfortunately, not in the direction I'd prefer.

ROBOTRON · Post by **ROBOTRON** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 10:27 am

Its already been tried, and successfully done by the U.S. government.

There was a ferry crossing a river in New Orleans with hundreds of U.S. servicemen on it...an SUV rigged with a bomb was exploded killing hundreds of people and injuring scores of others.

Wondering why you never heard of this happening?

After the explosion and the intense investigation afterward, U.S officials decided to use a top secret time window device code-named "Snow White" to look back 4 days into the past to try to discover who the culprit was. They brought aboard Denzel Washington, an ATF agent to help. He convinced them to try to push himself a note back in time in an effort to warn himself about the impending attack before it happened. The results were a disaster as a result the perp was not stopped, instead his partner was killed. To make a long story short, Denzel eventually jumped into the time travel machine...went back, stopped the bomb from blowing up the ferry...and saved a hot chick to boot. Unfortunately he was killed by the bomb, but it didn't matter, since he changed the time-line, thus saving himself. Only the hot chick remembered the incident at all...including myself of course.

D · Post by D » Mon Sep 29, 2008 10:29 am

mr_m0nks wrote:I thought it had been proven already that the faster you travel the slower time advances.

I remember reading some time ago about an experiment with two hyper-accurate atomic clocks. they were syncronised, then one was taking up in a fast plane for several hours. when it returned they were out of sync (I cant remember by how much. I doubt it was any more than 1000s of a second)

I'm sure that if such an experiment did happen then there will be some mention of it online somewhere

I could learn to understand how speed, gravity etc, could influence the time of clocks, but for me that's no proof that time goes slower with high speeds. Just that the clock goes slower. I made this thread for a serious debate. I wonder if somebody can just tell me why it is possible. Apparantly I never read anything on the subject. Some of you might have.
A while ago I had a smartass fact that would explain why it is impossible, but I forgot about it.

And even if time goes slower at high speed, that would not even prove time travel, because it would just mean slower. So you would still not be able to travel into the future unless the time would faster!

But I don't even believe that time can be slowed down. Not even 1/1000th of a second. To me (stop laughing) time is not a dimension and not even a factor. Time is nothing. Time just for measurement of how long something takes. It's like the metric system. Let's take 1 meter. 1 meter is 1 meter, period.

@robotron, I love time travel movies and sci fi. Great flick, that btw.
Found this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_travel
I'd love to pick your guys' brains on this subject.

Perhaps the easiest phenomenon to start with is time slowing down.
I don't believe time can be slowed down. I don't think that is I were to travel at precise light speed for 24 hours, any more or less time would have passed for me as someone who was just not traveling at light speed.

moozooh · Post by **moozooh** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 10:37 am

D wrote:To me (stop laughing) time is not a dimension and not even a factor. Time is nothing. Time just for measurement of how long something takes.

You have two options then.

1. Travel into nothing. According to your system of beliefs, of course.

2. Skew your time flow compared to what you consider reference time flow due to defference in movement speed. Which is what makes the clock desync.

The only way to "travel" into future known to me is option #2. The rest is most likely science fiction fantasies.

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 10:40 am

Time travel. Possible?

Good idea to make a poll about that in the shmups forum. So if most people vote "yes", then it's possible.

ROBOTRON · Post by **ROBOTRON** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 10:40 am

D wrote:
@robotron, I love time travel movies and sci fi. Great flick, that btw.

INDEED.

Seriously though, the speed thing I'd love to see proven. Vehicles like jets have broken the sound barrier right? Were their clocks off by a few seconds afterward I wonder? Space shuttle missions...do they experiment with this theory?

I know shows like Star Trek and Star Wars commonly entertain us with the theory of "warp".

Daedalus · Post by **Daedalus** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 10:43 am

D wrote: Perhaps the easiest phenomenon to start with is time slowing down.
I don't believe time can be slowed down. I don't think that is I were to travel at precise light speed for 24 hours, any more or less time would have passed for me as someone who was just not traveling at light speed.

Sorry bro, but you're arguing against reality. It's a bad idea to argue against science on a "gut feeling".

Read up here if you're actually interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation

D · Post by D » Mon Sep 29, 2008 11:29 am

Lol @ Ceph's humor, seriously, what do you think?

Daedalus wrote:Sorry bro, but you're arguing against reality. It's a bad idea to argue against science on a "gut feeling".
Read up here if you're actually interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation

Dude! Thanks for the links. Interesting, yet it's hard for me to fully understand even if they were in Dutch.
So If I were to thearatically travel at the speed of light for 24 hours (my time) how much time would have passed on earth? Are there formulas for that?
I should go back to school (and ask some teacher).

moozooh · Post by **moozooh** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 12:02 pm

Yeah, wish they were teaching general relativity in schools.

mr_m0nks · Post by **mr_m0nks** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 1:36 pm

if i remember my science lessons at school then, we spent 2 lessons identifying how you can tell a sheep is alive

time travel just isn't part of the sylabus since back to the future III

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 1:36 pm

For time travel to exist it must be done in a different way. Example - If you wanted to go forward in time at fast than light speed, which direction would you go 180,000 miles per second in? For a start, if that was humanely possible it would take you a few years to get to that speed and once reached, where would you be? Probably dead. At that impact speed a single atom has the power to go through anything.

In my opinion, a worm hole/teleport phenomena must exist for time travel to be possible. Parallel plates of time must cross each other and a gateway opened for it to be possible.

D · Post by D » Mon Sep 29, 2008 1:41 pm

neorichieb1971 wrote:In my opinion, a worm hole/teleport phenomena must exist for time travel to be possible. Parallel plates of time must cross each other and a gateway opened for it to be possible.

What would a worm hole do in terms of time?
I don't believe in parallel plates of time to begin with.
What's a gateway?
Just looked in the poll and there is at least somebody who thinks it will never be possible

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 1:50 pm

If there were plates of time and it took a certain trigger or event to take place for us to know of its existence, then its possibly the reason we haven't seen it yet.

bkk · Post by **bkk** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 2:13 pm

Here is everything you need.

Acid King · Post by **Acid King** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 3:25 pm

neorichieb1971 wrote: In my opinion, a worm hole/teleport phenomena must exist for time travel to be possible. Parallel plates of time must cross each other and a gateway opened for it to be possible.

And have the ship come back haunted? No way.

Ozymandiaz1260 · Post by **Ozymandiaz1260** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 6:33 pm

Time is just a physical property of the universe and it can be unnaturally manipulated just like any other physical property. It's really hard to wrap your head around the concept because the natural order of time is such a huge part of the way that you view normal existence. Einstein had a lot of really interesting thoughts on the subject, you should look into some of his writings on it.

Pixel_Outlaw · Post by **Pixel_Outlaw** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 6:50 pm

Dr. Michio Kaku has written a few books on the subject. Some like him some hate him. You might google though. He is a American author with Japanese roots. He has a weekly radio show and often appears on the science channels.

Dremark · Post by **Dremark** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 8:01 pm

Specineff wrote:You need a DeLorean for that, D. But sadly, they are out of production.

Telephone booths also work, although those are becoming rare as well.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 9:00 pm

I thought booths were used to change into your superhero identity, so thanks for the update.

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 9:09 pm

I think he meant a police box, not a telephone booth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TARDIS

Acid King · Post by **Acid King** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 10:48 pm

Ceph wrote:I think he meant a police box, not a telephone booth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TARDIS

Nah, it was a telephone booth.

Ravid · Post by **Ravid** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 12:12 am

D wrote:Lol @ Ceph's humor, seriously, what do you think?

Daedalus wrote:Sorry bro, but you're arguing against reality. It's a bad idea to argue against science on a "gut feeling".
Read up here if you're actually interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation
Dude! Thanks for the links. Interesting, yet it's hard for me to fully understand even if they were in Dutch.
So If I were to thearatically travel at the speed of light for 24 hours (my time) how much time would have passed on earth? Are there formulas for that?
I should go back to school (and ask some teacher).

When you travel at the speed of light time does not pass for you. Of course, you cannot accelerate to the speed of light, as it would require infinite energy.
A wormhole is a gateway that allows instantaneous travel between two points in space time. Such anomalies may or may not exist.
Finally, it is spelled 'theoretically'

For people saying that the above has been proven; technically it hasn't, nor will it ever be. A scientific theory (such as general relativity) cannot be proven ever. It is pretty much accepted as fact though (with the exception of the details which have been superseded by quantum theory).

Daedalus · Post by **Daedalus** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 12:25 am

D wrote:Lol @ Ceph's humor, seriously, what do you think?

Daedalus wrote:Sorry bro, but you're arguing against reality. It's a bad idea to argue against science on a "gut feeling".
Read up here if you're actually interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation
Dude! Thanks for the links. Interesting, yet it's hard for me to fully understand even if they were in Dutch.
So If I were to thearatically travel at the speed of light for 24 hours (my time) how much time would have passed on earth? Are there formulas for that?
I should go back to school (and ask some teacher).

Yes. The formula is:

(This is slightly incorrect, but it's easier to explain the basic meaning this way)
T is the "real time"... the time that passes for us on earth.
T1 is the time experienced by the object in motion
V is the velocity of the moving object
C is the speed of light

The formula has no value for the speed of light (would cause you to divide by zero). But time dilation exponentially increases as you get closer to the speed of light.

At .1 times the speed of light, earth would experience 2 extra days before a year passed for you.
At .5 times, earth would experience 56 extra days.
At .9 times, earth would experience 2.3 years for every year you lived
At .99 times, earth would experience 7.1 years
At .99999 times, earth would experience 223 years before one passed for you.

As someone previously mentioned, it is incredibly difficult to travel at such high speeds. Even .1 times light speed would be 18628 miles per second. Getting there would require both advances in propulsion and some way to to protect ourselves from random matter.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 12:29 am

So somebody 'splained this to me, I think it's quite AUSEOME

(it is more proof that MaxP ayne is the best ever.)

so tell me, can it be true or not?!

The bad dude from Max Payne in hiss litel nightclub was like

if u decare war on Stan u becom invisible because God is on your side
if u declare warr on Godds u become great because Saten is on ur sid

SO

if you declare war on everything (including shit that is bananas like cthulhu and spaghetti cookie monstr) then you can HURT THEM ALL

isn't that rad?

You doesn't need 1.21 gigawatts either.

D · Post by D » Tue Sep 30, 2008 9:21 am

Awesome thread!
One last question. What would explain the phenomenon of time going slower if you travel at high speed?
Assuming it is so, why does time go slower if you travel at high speed?
As for the speed of light. No object could go faster than the speed of light. But certain techniques could be used like some kind of (bare with me) air cutting laser beam that would transform the air into a gravity field, pulling the vehicle in at incresing speeds.
So if you would go past the speed of light you would be able to go back in time?
This is not even doable, because you would collide with yourself of a few seconds ago in the present.
Traveling at exact light speed would perhaps mean that time would stop? The world would just stop turning in your experience.
Can't they test this in that 27 KM long proton/neutron tunnel under the ground in france?
Regardless of it being possible if at all, it will be light years* before we can do that.

* was a joke because a light year is still a year

EDIT:
hm, that didn't make alot of sense now did it?
With that formula in order to get to the light speed, you would at one point be going at 0.99999999999999999999999999999999 lightspeed which would mean that time would go extremely fast for you.
I'm still not buying these theories and formulas. To me time is just time, not a factor to toy around with, I think the clocks are just not recording the time they should record.

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