Time Travel at Speed of Light?

[email protected]

New Member
Messages
17
Time Travel at Speed of Light?

I once read in a scientific book, stating that if someone had a twin on earth, and one of them goes into space and constantly travels at the speed of light for 1 year, that person's twin will be 1 year older. This is because the body supposadely doesn't age at the speed of light. Well, I was wondering, if we could somehow put someone in a deep sleep for 100 years, while that person is constantly travelling at the speed of light in space, that person would be 100 years in the future. As being in a deep sleep mode, you have no sense of time, meaning the second you are in deep sleep, you will wake up the next second already 100 years in the future. If humans can acquire speed of light safely, this could do wonders. The only problem is travelling back in time is not possible. Only to the future.
 

Chronodynamic Jim

Junior Member
Messages
116
Re: Time Travel at Speed of Light?

Yeah, and if wishes were horses, there would be neck deep in horse manure.:dry:
 

StarLord

Senior Member
Messages
3,187
Re: Time Travel at Speed of Light?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(\"[email protected]\")</div>
I once read in a scientific book, stating that if someone had a twin on earth, and one of them goes into space and constantly travels at the speed of light for 1 year, that person's twin will be 1 year older. This is because the body supposadely doesn't age at the speed of light. Well, I was wondering, if we could somehow put someone in a deep sleep for 100 years, while that person is constantly travelling at the speed of light in space, that person would be 100 years in the future. As being in a deep sleep mode, you have no sense of time, meaning the second you are in deep sleep, you will wake up the next second already 100 years in the future. If humans can acquire speed of light safely, this could do wonders. The only problem is travelling back in time is not possible. Only to the future.[/b]

Kutibah, thanks for your post! Well, that's the theory. Wether it's true or not remains to be seen. It has been speculated that ET has FTL and speed beyond that. It's either that or we happen to be on the last spiral of the Galactic Pony Express lane and just get to see these visitors on their routes.
 

Timetraveler12

New Member
Messages
1
Re: Time Travel at Speed of Light?

I totally agree with the first post, I had made similar thoughts months ago. This is what is portrayed in the original Planet of The Apes.:ninja:
 

StarLord

Senior Member
Messages
3,187
Re: Time Travel at Speed of Light?

A tad more than just a 100 years..... It would take eons to sink the statue of Liberty.
 

Harte

Senior Member
Messages
4,562
Re: Time Travel at Speed of Light?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(\"[email protected]\")</div>
This is because the body supposadely doesn't age at the speed of light. Well, I was wondering, if we could somehow put someone in a deep sleep for 100 years, while that person is constantly travelling at the speed of light in space, that person would be 100 years in the future. As being in a deep sleep mode, you have no sense of time, meaning the second you are in deep sleep, you will wake up the next second already 100 years in the future. If humans can acquire speed of light safely, this could do wonders. The only problem is travelling back in time is not possible. Only to the future.[/b]

kutibah1, if you put someone in a deep sleep for 100 years, of course they would wake up 100 years in the future. You don't need lightspeed travel for that.
Assuming this "deep sleep" stopped you from aging, if you slept for 100 years while traveling near lightspeed you would wake up in the same year you would have arrived at if you'd been awake for 100 years, but if you did stay awake you would be 100 years older (bummer).
Also, according to Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, travel into the past is possible.
 

Harte

Senior Member
Messages
4,562
Re: Time Travel at Speed of Light?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(\"[email protected]\")</div>
So deep sleep could stop aging?
Can you explain Einstein's General Theory of Relativity?[/b]

kutibah1,

Special relativity (a trivial case of the general theory) is much much easier to understand but they are both bears. The general theory of relativity is quite deep. In the years after it was first put forward it was said that there were only 4 or 5 people on Earth that really understood it. The theory states that gravity is merely the result of the curvature of spacetime caused by a large mass. In other words, gravity does not deflect an object. An object moving through a gravitational field continues on a straight line path. The object seems to be deflected only because the spacetime through which it passes has been bent.

From the mathematics and resulting predictions of the theory come calculations that show that time travel into the past is possible. What they don't show is what effect this has on causality. From the possible methods I've read about I gather that a powerful rotating gravitational field is required.

One method has 2 massive (heavier that our sun) cylinders rotating in opposite directions. The time portal is between the cylinders.

Another method is a supermassive rotating torus (kind of a cosmic doughnut or bagel). The torus rotates on an axis perpendicular to the plane defined (sort of ) by the center "hole".
The time portal is in the hole, all you must do is fly through without being torn into a stream of base particles.

I think the first time the possibility of travel into the past was established it involved utilizing a rotating black hole. Apparently if you have enough speed and approach at the right angle (with respect to the field, not the event horizon) you may be flung into the past. With this method I think they showed that it was impossible to predict the time and position you would end up in. That may well be true of the other methods also.

Hope this helps, reading what I've written it doesn't look too helpful really. Try googling the theory, maybe with the word "layman" in the search. You'll probably find something more clearly stated.

As for deep sleep, I was only going with what you originally said. Sleep will not stop aging but some kind of suspended animation not yet invented might. Anyway, you don't need this kind of sleep to travel into the future using lightspeed. All you need is the ability to reach speeds that are a significant fraction of the speed of light. Good luck with that.
 

Top