Idea About Time Travel

[VCasciotta]

I believe I heard at some point and time someone saying that it was possible to travel backwards in time by traveling at a certain speed. The following are my speculations on things and I might be false in a bunch of stuff, so please bare with me on that. I'm not really all that knowledgeable in this field. Here goes:

 

You cannot travel fast enough to go back in time because it takes time to get to where you are going. You may be able to prevent a future event by traveling at any speed to any location, but you cannot alter a past even by traveling at a speed.

 

Moving from one place, to another place takes a time, because if something goes from one place to another, it must have a measurement of speed and speed is measured with time as a variable. Speed is measured by distance/time. To have negative time in the speed calculation, you'd get a negative speed which is impossible.

 

Example: You need to travel 5 feet forward, but 10 minutes backwards in time to save your brother from tripping.

 

S = D/T

 

S = 5 feet/-10 minutes = -.5 feet per minute (FPM)

 

S = -.5 FPM

 

Travel at a negative speed? How can that be possible?

 

In conclusion, you'd need to travel at a negative speed to go backwards in time. Going faster would not allow you to move backwards in time because you would simply go further in time. However...

 

Making time a negative variable and Distance a negative variable as well, would keep speed at a positive variable.

 

e.g. You need to move backwards 5 from where you are and 10 minutes into the past to prevent your brother from falling.

 

S = -5/-10 = .5 FPM

 

S = .5 FPM

 

Very slow, but proves you can go backwards in time by traveling at a positive speed. Odd.

 

Here's another idea I had, but it's really really weird:

If you have the intent to move ahead 5 feet, but do not, then you are moving in negative speed. If you intend to move 5 feet in 10 minutes, at the 10 minute mark (if you have NOT moved) at that very instant, you'd be travelling at -5 FPM. This is ODD. Anyone wanna help shed some light on what I'm doing with my spare time here? Haha.

 

By the way, I now recall who said that you could travel at a speed to go back in time. That'd be Albert Einstein. This is gonna make me think up some stuff now...

[YT2095]

so basically all you`r saying is that if you don`t do something, you haven`t done it.

 

Hmmm... Very Profound!

[Sayonara]

Speed is a scalar quantity, not a vector. Changing the sign of the speed to negative does not mean it goes in the opposite direction, it just means you are using an unconventional perspective.

 

Accordingly, changing the sign of the time lapse to negative simply serves to preserve the positive sign of your answer, and does not have any temporal meaning.

[Riogho]

Actually the faster you go, the slower time gets from the reference frame of an outside observer. It never reverses itself though.

[iNow]

Theoretically it would if you surpassed c, but I recognize that the impossiblitly of any object with mass doing so was implied in your point.

 

Precise definitions make for precise understandings.

[VCasciotta]

OH wow. Haha. Thank you for shedding some serious light on that. You have to keep in mind, I'm not really into physics or anything so I'm not too knowledgeable on the subject. Thank you very much. You just saved me hours of useless thought on it.

[jackson33]

OH wow. Haha. Thank you for shedding some serious light on that. You have to keep in mind, I'm not really into physics or anything so I'm not too knowledgeable on the subject. Thank you very much. You just saved me hours of useless thought on it.

 

Before giving up (never a good idea), you might google *Dr.Ronald Mallett*, a University of Conn physics professor with a 30 year study on the subject, with an interesting story as to why...

 

Surpassing the speed of light is by no means the only possibility for those involved in such studies. Warping space-time via a machine, in short is his and one of many. He goes so far as to predict, testing his machine within ten years. An interesting read, if nothing else...

 

Personally, I doubt 'Time Travel' will ever be a reality, at least for people.

Einstein felt it could be possible someday, but visualizing a different time, not.

You would need to involve dimensions to our reality, which many feel is pure Science Fiction...

[iNow]

The PBS show, NOVA, had a fun special on Time Travel a few years ago that I really enjoyed. It was very science oriented, featuring Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, and Kip Thorne.

 

Their website is pretty useful as well. You should spend some time exploring that:

 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/time/

 

 

And if you want to buy a copy of the program (it's only available in VHS, and it's only available here):

 

http://shop.wgbh.org/product/show/8036

 

 

In man's wildest fantasies and Hollywood's most outrageous adventures, time travel is the ultimate thrill ride. But The Terminator and Dr. Who aren't the only ones fascinated with the idea of revisiting the past. Inspired by Carl Sagan's novel Contact, scientist Kip Thorne has postulated how time travel might be possible. Join NOVA for this wonderfully head-spinning trip to see how one man has created a theoretical time machine that may turn dreams into reality.

 

Thorne believes that someday, if a civilization far more advanced than ours could harness and manipulate "wormholes"- theoretical tunnels through space and time- they might be able to go back in time to arrive at a place before departing. Discover the wicked paradoxes of his theory, and learn how the emergence of new "quantum gravity" laws are creating heated scientific debate. And see how Thorne and other top scientists from around the world- including physicist Stephen Hawking- are pushing physics to the limit in an attempt to "understand" the true nature of time and space.