To take part in discussions on talkSFU, please apply for membership (SFU email id required).

Can we time travel?

edited January 2007 in General
We know that mass slows down the flow of time. So we experience a slower time rate compared to the moon. With that being said, time is not a permanent thing. As we explore our universe and move outwards from Earth, we can no longer use Earth time because that would be incorrect. Let say we have advanced enough to have space stations near Jupiter or Saturn. Each clock would run at a difference rate.

So if we can change the flow of time, does that mean we can travel through time at different rates and thus time travel?

This is much different than the science fiction time travel where one would open a gate and travel back in time (Back to the Future). For that I do not think it is possible because we would have been visited by beings from the future already.

Comments

  • edited December 2006
    nope! lol. im too stupid to give a reason, i just think no..
  • edited December 2006
    Maybe we have been visited by beings from the future already but they are wise enough to know that they shouldn't make their prescence obvious because it may upset the balance of the universe ie. alter the future.

    Your time travel question always gets me thinking too I've had long discussions with my popz about it...let me get back to you tomrrow when my brain is more fresh
  • edited December 2006
    this is just like relativity stuf, is that considered time travel? its all reference frames!! lol time dialation was it? reminds me of the original planet of the apes, great movies

    personally, i think other lifeforms exist, the universe is too big not to, and to be visited, maybe the govt knows and its hiding it from everyone :D
  • edited December 2006
    Believe me, if anyone HAS visited from the future, they are locked up in mental institutions.

    Haven't you see Twelve Monkeys?
  • edited December 2006
    does that means someone that's 300lbs will experience time slower than I do? @@
  • edited December 2006
    lol @ luxferre.. that's so cute..

    hmm.. i don't have a lot to say about time travel.. other than if it's possible.. i would like give it a shot.. =) there are definitely places of the past i would like to see first hand with my own eyes..
  • edited December 2006
    For mass to affect the flow of time to any appreciable extent you have to discuss very dense bodies, such as neutron stars or black holes. :smile:

    It has been postulated that because spacetime is warped and not flat, that you could tear its fabric, so to speak, and open a connection between you and a point in the future or the past - i.e. a wormhole.

    It's theoretically possible (and in fact, very doable) to move into the future at an accelerated rate through relativistic effects.

    The question of moving into the past is another issue altogether, and it has been hypothesized that a wormhole that allows time travel would not permit time travel to any moment in time prior to its creation.

    :confused: <-- I think I'll leave it at that. Heh.
  • edited December 2006
    siuying said:
    there are definitely places of the past i would like to see first hand with my own eyes..
    U mean kinda lik u in the making....? :angel:
    NukeChem said:
    It has been postulated that because spacetime is warped and not flat, that you could tear its fabric, so to speak, and open a connection between you and a point in the future or the past - i.e. a wormhole.

    It's theoretically possible (and in fact, very doable) to move into the future at an accelerated rate through relativistic effects.

    The question of moving into the past is another issue altogether, and it has been hypothesized that a wormhole that allows time travel would not permit time travel to any moment in time prior to its creation.

    :confused: <-- I think I'll leave it at that. Heh.
    With wormholes, I thought it's a tear of fabric in space and not time? (isnt tear in time called something else?) because I read somewhere that they hypothesize that space is like a sheet of paper, and having to travel from one end of the paper to the other wastes a lotta time, so wut wormholes essentially kinda like folding the paper, so one end is then overlapped on the other...

    and then there's star trek's take on this whole time travel/worm hole thing... :confused:

    I guess we'll truely know when we're able to break the light barrier... whenever that's gonna be... ITS UP TO U NUKECHEM!!!!!
  • edited December 2006
    no luxferre dear.. i want to see places and people of the past.. and why things happened the way they did.. i'm not really interested in how i was made.. the process was taught in high school and it's the same for everyone.. nothing interesting on that part.. =P
  • edited December 2006
    siuying said:
    no luxferre dear.. i want to see places and people of the past.. and why things happened the way they did.. i'm not really interested in how i was made.. the process was taught in high school and it's the same for everyone.. nothing interesting on that part.. =P
    oh man... that's the SECOND TIME THIS WEEK someone called me that -_-"

    Do i seriously sound like a 5 yr old for ppl to start doing that to me? ><

    But anyway... now that u mention it... remind me that there are some places and ppl from the past I'd like to see too!!! (and bitch slap while Im there :tongue:)
  • edited December 2006
    lol... sorry.. i didn't mean for it to sound like a 5 year old thing.. it's an expression that i use on almost everyone.. XD
  • edited December 2006
    well space and time are relative. Time is not a constant thing as it shifts depends on where you are in space.
  • edited December 2006
    siuying said:
    lol... sorry.. i didn't mean for it to sound like a 5 year old thing.. it's an expression that i use on almost everyone.. XD
    so i guess that's kinda lik a BAD habit huh? :tongue:
    BryanL said:
    well space and time are relative. Time is not a constant thing as it shifts depends on where you are in space.
    Oh man... that is deep... but wait... isnt that like saying if ur fat enuff... time will be so slow for u... that when time itself ends... u will eventually loop back in time to the beginning of everything???? HUH?
  • edited December 2006
    well.. i wouldn't neccessarily call it a habit that's bad.. i kind of like it.. sometimes it either pisses people off or freak them out.. i could really use those to get people off my case.. =D
  • edited December 2006
    I always think about how many things we could change if the problem of time travel can be solved...I' cant wait if its possible :teeth:
  • edited December 2006
    Luxferre said:
    so i guess that's kinda lik a BAD habit huh? :tongue:


    Oh man... that is deep... but wait... isnt that like saying if ur fat enuff... time will be so slow for u... that when time itself ends... u will eventually loop back in time to the beginning of everything???? HUH?
    Well for time to be changed, the mass has to be pretty great. A clock on the moon will run faster than a clock on Earth because the mass is lighter. I do not think time will ever end. The universe is expanding, into what? we are not sure. But it is expanding (as far as we know).

    Take for example if a probe gets pulled into a black hole's gravity field. Because the mass is so great, time is very very very slow. So if we were to view that probe, we would see it "fall" into the blackhole for infinity. That is assuming we could see it which is impossible because there would be no light emitting from the whole for us to see the probe.
  • edited December 2006
    siuying said:
    well.. i wouldn't neccessarily call it a habit that's bad.. i kind of like it.. sometimes it either pisses people off or freak them out.. i could really use those to get people off my case.. =D
    ok... definitely a bad habit :tongue:
  • edited December 2006
    Yea, time travel's been quite a curious thing for me. Is it possible? I have very limited knowledge of science, so I don't know what to think. I know that Einstein worked with time travel. I just wondered, how do you even start with a concept like time? It's intangible, sometimes hardly perceptible. It's just such a vague "concept."
  • edited December 2006
    Dane Cook's time-travel wish...

    Hilarious comedian who would want to do something with time-travel that I would NOT... haha

    (that segment is right at the start and then he talks about other stuff)
  • edited December 2006
    BryanL said:
    Take for example if a probe gets pulled into a black hole's gravity field. Because the mass is so great, time is very very very slow. So if we were to view that probe, we would see it "fall" into the blackhole for infinity. That is assuming we could see it which is impossible because there would be no light emitting from the whole for us to see the probe.
    Hmmm
    that's very interesting, so essentially if you can get close enuff towards a black hole, and have some sort of propulsion system to keep you from falling in, essentially you could eventually enter a state of "freeze in time" since you're time would be indefinitely slower than the rest of the universe, and stick around to see the next millenium :smile:
  • edited December 2006
    Luxferre said:
    Hmmm
    that's very interesting, so essentially if you can get close enuff towards a black hole, and have some sort of propulsion system to keep you from falling in, essentially you could eventually enter a state of "freeze in time" since you're time would be indefinitely slower than the rest of the universe, and stick around to see the next millenium :smile:
    Well that poses another question. Would we still age the same if time is slower/faster?
  • edited January 2007
    Yes u can, if u sleep a lot, u will really feel like time travels faster.

Leave a Comment