Time travel

cyber

my name defines me
I recently started thinking about time travel and how awesome it would be to actually travel through time.....so i started reading articles and they gave me a lot of insight

First:: all these paradoxes seem to make time travel impossible...one thing is the grandfather paradox where if u travel back in time and kill your grandfather then u will have never been born.so where will u go?

BUT the idea of parallel universe(though hard to understand in depth) seems to make time travel possible.

THEN i started seeing how can one actually timetravel and it seems that it is possible if one travels faster than light..
EXAMPLE: if u are running in a track faster than light then after u cross the finish line (and turn back) u will see yourself coming towards u...(since one sees objects as light reflects from them and u travel faster than light,reflection only happens after some time).

BUT how can u see it as there is no object to reflect light from?(i came across this example in a magazine)

MY THOUGHT:
picture this:

what if we are already in an infinite loop.I mean somebody found out how to timetravel ,travelled back in time and forgot about it(memory also reversed)...everything starts from the date he/she traveled back to...then again they find a way and this keeps on repeating. :)
 

sygeek

Technomancer
First of all, you're question is more suited to this forum since we're no experts to answer it technically.

To start with, I'll just wait for the OPERA results against speed of light until saying time travel is impossible, at least in this universe. Parallel universes may still have the same paradoxes that apply to the current universe. [Interesting video]

THEN i started seeing how can one actually time travel and it seems that it is possible if one travels faster than light..
EXAMPLE: if u are running in a track faster than light then after u cross the finish line (and turn back) u will see yourself coming towards u...(since one sees objects as light reflects from them and u travel faster than light,reflection only happens after some time).

BUT how can u see it as there is no object to reflect light from?(i came across this example in a magazine)
Wait the night, go to and open field and look at the stars. Chances are, many of them are already dead and the light you see is pretty comes from a source that doesn't exist now in it's original form.

Sometimes I wonder the how ridiculously strange everything is, I can't seem to make of anything normal anymore. Human activities seem like a negligible effect on the universe. So, what is the purpose of all of it? What is the purpose of life? What is the purpose of the universe? Why is all of this is here? Why are you even doing what you're doing?

For those who are clueless, take a look at the link above.
 
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cyber

cyber

my name defines me
CERN scientists have observed that neutrinos travel faster than light(preliminary--they think there might be some error(seems neutrinos reached 60nanoseconds faster than light)).

sometimes i tink nothing about universe makes sense...hope this gives us an insight....INDIA 2 is going to build a particle accelerator..

lets hope for the best:)
 

sygeek

Technomancer
CERN scientists have observed that neutrinos travel faster than light(preliminary--they think there might be some error(seems neutrinos reached 60nanoseconds faster than light)).

sometimes i tink nothing about universe makes sense...hope this gives us an insight....INDIA 2 is going to build a particle accelerator..

lets hope for the best:)
I'm pretty sure it's an error. This result hasn't been proved. Could go deeper with this but there's google :p
 

nims11

BIOS Terminator
if you give a thought at the Twin Paradox, which basically is a result of time dilation, time travel to future is possible, the extent of which depends on how close the speed is to that of light.
 

sygeek

Technomancer
if you give a thought at the Twin Paradox, which basically is a result of time dilation, time travel to future is possible, the extent of which depends on how close the speed is to that of light.
Theoretically, time travel is possible. Even if we can't reach the exact speed of light, 99.99% of speed of light is still a lot. Add some 9s, 99.99999% and it gets more closer to the speed of light. Theoretically, you can keep adding more 9s and reach closer and closer.

But I don't think we're anywhere near it. Also, this is only future time travel which doesn't add much to the paradox (I'm not referring to the twin paradox).
 
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eggman

I have Yolks not Brains!
Sometimes I wonder the how ridiculously strange everything is, I can't seem to make of anything normal anymore. Human activities seem like a negligible effect on the universe. So, what is the purpose of all of it? What is the purpose of life? What is the purpose of the universe? Why is all of this is here? Why are you even doing what you're doing?

There doesn't have to any purpose. You and Me are just stardust! There doesn't have to be any purpose.
 

freshseasons

King of my own Castle
The purpose of life is to inhabit the earth so long that we develop the technology to travel outside the solar system and galaxy and avoid the ultimate doom that waits us.Same goes for all the species who live out there.To go beyond their galaxies.

This till each and every single planet is either inhabited or used as raw material and inter galactic unions are formed of various species.The power of technology to the point that we control the birth and destroying of suns.
To develop technology to the point that life expectancy of living beings is about 1 lakh years....and more.
Gosh there is so much to ...
We haven't even started yet...and most people don't see the point.

Mirza Galib said:
hazaaroN KHwahishaiN 'eisee ke har KHwahish pe dam nikle
bohot nikle mere armaaN lekin fir bhee kam nikle
 

Desmond

Destroy Erase Improve
Staff member
Admin
I read somewhere a long time back that in order to create a Time-Machine, we first need to create a device that produces gravity. Because, it is known that light travels at different speeds in gravitational fields of different magnitudes. Its partially the reason stars twinkle. It is also the concept of Einstein's gravitational lens.

Ref: Gravitational lens - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Off-topic : Glad about this thread. Rekindled my interest in science. :D
 

Liverpool_fan

Sami Hyypiä, LFC legend
Theoretically, time travel is possible. Even if we can't reach the exact speed of light, 99.99% of speed of light is still a lot. Add some 9s, 99.99999% and it gets more closer to the speed of light. Theoretically, you can keep adding more 9s and reach closer and closer.

But I don't think we're anywhere near it.
I see what you did there...
 

eggman

I have Yolks not Brains!
Theoretically, time travel is possible. Even if we can't reach the exact speed of light, 99.99% of speed of light is still a lot. Add some 9s, 99.99999% and it gets more closer to the speed of light. Theoretically, you can keep adding more 9s and reach closer and closer.

But I don't think we're anywhere near it. Also, this is only future time travel which doesn't add much to the paradox ;)

Like a lot? Not in science..
Can you boil water at 99 degrees. or 99.99 or 99.99999999999999.....it is a lot, but not enough.
 

sygeek

Technomancer
There doesn't have to any purpose. You and Me are just stardust! There doesn't have to be any purpose.
Probably.

Like a lot? Not in science..
Can you boil water at 99 degrees. or 99.99 or 99.99999999999999.....it is a lot, but not enough.
99.99% of speed of light and 99.999999999% of speed of light do have a lot of difference. This is not boiling of water, it's the speed of light.

Point is, you can keep adding 9s and reach closer and closer to the speed of light. Even if we can't go beyond that, we can go closer and closer towards it. The difference between 99.99% and 100% is an infinite amount of energy.
 
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cyber

cyber

my name defines me
travelling close to the speed of light is not enough...In the first post i gave an example (i posted a question with it and i understood it nw). u see after u complete the race running faster than light ,the light that was reflected from u has not reached ur eyes yet,so if u turn back u wil see yourself comin towards u.
so basically U have to travel faster than light for light to miss u..

The sun that we see daily is the sun of eight minutes ago(since light needs 8 min to reach ur eyes)...similarly all stars that we see are not how they are at present,
some stars might be dead.

GPS locater uses the concept of time dilation...its an intresting application of theory of relativity...what astounds me is hw einstein thought of all those(i mean even with today's technology we are still debating about all these).maybe if he was alive we would be in a whole different world nw.
 

Neuron

Electronic.
A photon travels at the speed of light.Anything traveling at the speed of light does not experience the passage of time.Means a photon is devoid of time.Thus a photon takes 0 time to travel from one point to another.That is, a photon has infinite speed.Thus the photon is faster than light.Light is made up of photons.So light travels faster than light. wtf??
 

Liverpool_fan

Sami Hyypiä, LFC legend
A photon travels at the speed of light.Anything traveling at the speed of light does not experience the passage of time.Means a photon is devoid of time.Thus a photon takes 0 time to travel from one point to another.That is, a photon has infinite speed.Thus the photon is faster than light.Light is made up of photons.So light travels faster than light. wtf??

It only means the photon does not experience time in itself.

Time stops at light speed?
Physics Forums - View Single Post - reference frame of light
 

sygeek

Technomancer
It only means the photon does not experience time in itself.

Time stops at light speed?
Physics Forums - View Single Post - reference frame of light
I would like to add these links as well:

Mchr3k comments on Why is the speed of light so constant?

RobotRollCall comments on Why exactly can nothing go faster than the speed of light?
 

Vyom

The Power of x480
Staff member
Admin
First of all I am glad that this forum has members interested in such vague and sometimes mind bending topics as time travel.
There are many theories which tells that time travel is possible. And even more of those which says it’s just impossible. At least the backward navigation.

Anyway, thanks cyber, since this thread gave me the opportunity to revive my past. I dug out my documents from the old backup dvd’s of six years ago. In which I had written about the same kind of questions which arose in my mind.

I won’t discuss about any of those theories or paradoxes here, since a single thorough read of the same topic in wikipedia is easy to get informed about it.

What I would just like to add is that if we are not watching any Time Travellers in today’s date then backward time travel may not be possible (at least not in this Universe). And if time travel will be possible in future, then we may not be so far behind.

Time travel with all its possibilities and paradoxes is a fascinating subject. Let’s assume we are in a world where time travel is possible. In practice, it may not be as fascinating as zooming past the dimension of time in a DeLorean (read like back to the future kind), or like a Time Slip (like in FAQ’s about Time Travel) or simply a genetic problem that causes you to randomly move across years (in The Time Traveler's Wife), but it sure is something which sounds more interesting in fiction, then reality.

I am not trying to sound negative. In fact, I do believe time can be travelled through. After all it’s just another dimension. We already move in the 3 dimensions of x, y and z. What’s preventing us to travel in the dimension T, is only the knowledge and resources.

I would like to conclude this post with a fact (or rather a philosophy). A fact that states, we are all time travellers. We all travel forward in time at a rate of 1sec per sec. And we all travel to past. With our memories. ;)
 
OP
cyber

cyber

my name defines me
^^ BUT what if people who time traveled are not comin forward..:mrgreen:

anyway i think we cannot perceive things after a certain point..
read this interesting article......Questioning perceptual blindness | Science | Strange Days | Fortean Times UK


i mean i guess we have to be a prodigy to get through something like timetravel..

i recently saw the movie CONTACT... in the last scene where jodie foster goes into space and returns back she sees the present earth...shouldn't it be the future?
 
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eggman

I have Yolks not Brains!
Probably.

Point is, you can keep adding 9s and reach closer and closer to the speed of light. Even if we can't go beyond that, we can go closer and closer towards it. The difference between 99.99% and 100% is an infinite amount of energy.

Ya..but dont expect to go back in time !! It doesnt have any effect, no matter how much 9s you add. You have to cross the threshold. Scientifically, you can never.
 
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