Time Travel... What would happen?

[Professor Brensec]

Katahu,

"C" (which I have used acouple of times already in this post) is, surprisingly, the 'formulative abbreviation' for the 'speed of light'.  ;)

I believe Einstein may have been the 'instigator of this 'simplistic' expression.  ;D

Formulae are all very well, if they have an 'answer' (ie solution). You'll know from your 'complicated SAT's' that if they don't 'square up' or equate, they may as well be nonsense.  ;D

[Katahu]

Brensec,

I have taken the god d*mn SAT's since my Junior year in high school. To be exact, I have taken the SAT's four times.

So you are right. If they never square up, they are nothing more than nonsense.

However, time travel and dimensional travel do seem to square up if many of us just think about all the possibles that could happen.

The grandfather paradox, for example, represents a cycle that can almost never be stopped.

For wormholes, they are kind of tough to produce. For example:

Imagine a plane [geometric term] is folded over like a sheet a paper folded in half. Then two planets are placed on the plane [one on each side].

If both of the planets have equal mass [not size] and if both of them are lined up, a wormhole's starting and finishing points are created.

This is because the two planets add weight to the plane thus forming a dent. The bottom of one dent then fuses with the bottom of the other dent formed by the weight of the other planet. Thus creating a wormhole.

However, wormholes have limitations:

1. If a ship that travels through it is too big to fit, then the wormhole will collapse.
2. It is impossible to calculate how long the hole would last or how much mass or size it could hold before collapsing or closing.
3. No one knows what could happen if you travel through such a thing.

I don't think we would ever see a wormhole near our planet.

Space riddons also exist.

They are hard to detect and NOT much is known about them or what they do. Their length measures about X light-years [where X is a number] while their width measures about a micron or less. Correct me if this is INaccurate.

However, a theory suggests that it's possible for a wormhole to develope around the ribbon. But theories are just theories.

[Professor Brensec]

If there ever is a way in which to traverse great distances (i.e. interstella), I see it being more along the lines of the methods portrayed in most (if not all) of our Sci-Fi series.

For instance, Warp travel and Hyperdrive etc are not methods by which an object actually travels the distance from point A to point B. Rather they are methods used to 'defeat' (for want of a better term) the 'space' between the two points by either 'folding' space so that in 'actuality' the two points are brought closer together (only in relation to the object which is in the state of 'warp' or 'warp bubble') or by Hyperdrive.

I must admit, I don't know much about the theory of hyperdrive behind the portrayals in the Sci-Fi series, but the name implies a means to go 'over' or 'higher' than something. I expect it's just a reference to faster than light.

Also the 'subspace' issue is another to be explored in terms of travelling distance without actually 'traversing' the length of the line........
In Sci-Fi (which is based on at least, the theories of our reknowned minds) subspace is a 'layer' (again, for want of a better term), beneath our 'continuum' which doesn't contain the 'lineal' distances that we are familiar with in our Universe. Hence, the means by which messages are sent via certain frequencies in all (even the oldest) of Sci-Fi series portraying space travel.
Obviously, they had to come up with a way to communicate over light years, without the messages taking years to be received and responded to. For instance, in Star Trek, it would have been ridiculous for every message to be wrapped in it's own private 'warp bubble' (complete with anti-matter power source).......lol

As I said, I don't understand much of this, but I venture to predict that, if man (sorry person) is ever to travel distances that require FTL speeds to achieve in reasonable time, they will be travelled using some method which removes the 'lineal distance' factor from the equation.  ;D

[RIC_BARKER]

Interesting topic.

Einstein thought that faster than light travel was impossible, and set out an experiment to prove it, called the EPR thought experiment.

Not so long ago (1999 I think) we finally had the technology to do the EPR experiment, which was completed at the CERN laboratories. The experimemnt involved "entangling" a pair of quantum particles, splitting them over a large distance, and measuring them. The pair of particles are assmetrical, like a pair of gloves, but until one is measured, the particles themselves are neither "left" nor "right", but a strange mix of both. Yes Quantum mechanics is odd.

So, when one is measured, and is found to be, for example "left", the other instantly becomes the opposite, no matter what the distance.

This is 'instantaneous action at a distance' which Einstein said was impossible, as the information travels faster than the speed of light. So, it is possible.

Australian scientists are using these strange properties of quantum entanglement to "teleport" laser beams.


Gravity bends space, and by bending space, you can bring two finite points closer together. So, if you can do that, there is no reason you can't travel faster than the speed of light, although it's in a roundabout fashion.

Oddly, time also runs at different "speeds" in different locations. Time at the equator runs slower than at the poles, because of the difference in relative speed. The same occurs every time you travel on an aircraft, meaning you are younger relative to the people left on the ground.


Quantum theory is weird, but facinating. If you're interested look here: http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/quantum/

Try not to think of space and time as a seperate entity, think of it as spacetime and it becomes clearer.

I can also reccommend "A Breif History of Time" by Stephen Hawking. It manages to explain time and space very well with minimal use of mathematics.


Ric B.

[Katahu]

Here is another interesting website that tells you the basics of time travel and other related topics.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/time-t ... /printable

The main webpage is www.howstuffworks.com

For those of you who still don't understand these parts of science, you can clearly see how complex our world has become and how far we can go to find the answers to our scientific problems.

[Katahu]

I need to correct something.

On one of my posts, I said the term Space Ribbon. I just found out that the real scientific term is Cosmic Strings.

[Professor Brensec]

Very good Post, Ric.  ;)

Gravity bends space, and by bending space, you can bring two finite points closer together. So, if you can do that, there is no reason you can't travel faster than the speed of light, although it's in a roundabout fashion

This, especially, serves to explain my previous post regarding 'warp' and 'hyperspace' etc. I.E. These ships are not actually travelling faster than light, they are 'circumventing the distance between two points, by bending or 'warping' space. As you say, in the 'round about way".

I've also had a lokk through some of Hawkings book about Time etc. I must admit, I didn't read it all, nor too carefully, but what I did read, seemed to gel, for me!  ;D