Travelling in Time

Hey curious minds, have you ever thought of travelling in time? I guess everyone is curious about this topic. So travel with me through the blog to know more…

Many of us love looking at sky in night, but what if I say it is not the same as it looks like.

Yes! Most of the things you see are not actually there.

The idea perhaps becomes even clearer when we consider that our picture of the Moon is actually what the Moon was like 1¼ seconds ago, our picture of the Sun is actually how it looked 8½ minutes ago, and by the time we see an image of Alpha Centauri, our nearest star system, it is already 4.3 years out of date. Imagine, you are currently looking at a star system which has already moved forward by 4.3 years!!!

In short you can never see the exact picture of universe at a given instant! You may say that universe not only extends in space but it extends in space-time.

Physicists do not regard time as “passing” or “flowing” and time is not a sequence of events which happen: the past and the future are simply there, laid out as part of space and time.
Albert Einstein showed that time is an illusion; it is relative — it can vary for different observers depending on your speed through space. To Einstein, time is the "fourth dimension."

                                                     (Picture courtesy: nbcnews.com)

The Theory Of Special Relativity

Einstein's theory of special relativity says that time slows down or speeds up depending on how fast you move relative to something else. Approaching the speed of light, a person inside a spaceship would age much slower than his twin at home. Also, under Einstein's theory of general relativity, gravity can bend time.

Both the general and special relativity theories have been proven with GPS satellite technology that has very accurate timepieces on board. The effects of gravity, as well as the satellites' increased speed above the Earth relative to observers on the ground, make the unadjusted clocks gain 38 microseconds a day. In a sense, this effect called time dilation, means astronauts are time travelers, as they return to Earth very, very slightly younger than their identical twins that remain on the planet.

It is generally understood that traveling forward or back in time would require a device — a time machine — to take you there. Time machine research often involves bending space-time so far that time lines turn back on themselves to form a loop, technically known as a "closed time-like curve."

                                                   (Picture courtesy: thelifeofpsi.com) 

So is your time travel possible?

There are various physical limitations for time travel. As you need to move with a velocity greater than light, you wouldn’t be alive since your body won’t support.

Along with physical problems, you may come along some unique situations. The best example is Grandfather Paradox, in which a time traveler goes back and kills his parents or his grandfather. This would mean that the time traveler “is” or “was” never born!! This would alter the reality significantly.

Time travel does not seem possible for humans. Even if it is, one wouldn’t survive the impact in current scenario. With the physics that we use today, the field is constantly changing. Advances in quantum theories could perhaps provide some understanding of how to overcome time travel paradoxes. Till then, you can travel time virtually in books and movies!


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