Now, I'm no mathemagician, but I've been told that (according to Einstein's theory of relativity) if I travel really, really fast (speed of light kind of fast) away from earth and back, time will actually have past slower for me than for the people of earth. That is to say, I will still be somewhat young (uhum), whereas all the people of earth will have grown old relative to me.
That's like travelling forwards in time. And just like everything has its opposite (light vs dark, good vs evil, Bush vs sanity) so must a theory have an opposite. I hereby present you with the opposite of this part of Einstein's theory of relativity. I say: "If you travel really, really slow, you will go back in time."
Yes, you may already see the ingenious implications of my statement, but bare with me for the fun of it. Consider when you're waiting for the bus to come. Does not time appear to slow down at such moments? Yes it does. I mean it really does slow down. Although you won't go back in time (which would make for a crazy bus schedule by the way) you are older in relativity to the people of the bus once it arrives. Of course, we're not even talking microseconds here, which is why you can't detect this using any known scientific method.
Ok, so to make it more apparent, we need to create the experiment of all times. We need to send off earth at the speed of light while maintaining a really, really slow speed for ourselves. That way, we should have moved back in time relative to earth ones it returns.
Here's a few statements that would be true, were we able to complete this test:
1. Time will have moved slower for our friends on earth than for us.
2. While our friends are relatively young and healthy, we will be old, senile, impotent and possibly suffering from various forms of cancer.
3. Our friends will have spent a good month on earth having fun, whereas we will have spent many, many years floating about in the vacuum of space; being beaten senseless by various astronomical objects such as comets, and left behind satellites.
4. While our friends are happy to see us (somewhat), we will not even know who they are. We will think that they're yet another illusion soon to be revealed as a massive piece of spacejunk hitting our fragile bodies.
However, there's a positive side to this. For a scientific theory to be accepted, the phenomena must be re-producable by other scientists. For the love of Bon; let those scientists be our friends. Then:
1. While we've spent a month on earth in desperate need of healthcare, our friends will have spent many, many years in space praying that we can find our way back to them. (We're senile, remember?)
2. While we are senile, impotent and possibly suffering from various forms of cancer... so are they.
3. We won't know who they are and they will be equally clueless.
So, to wrap it up. We might be able to reproduce the conditions needed to perform the experiment, but in the end we won't know if we actually travelled back in time (and we probably won't care much).
Anyone up for the test?
Originally posted by stockenAre you perhaps forgetting the time you lose going really really
Now, I'm no mathemagician, but I've been told that (according to Einstein's theory of relativity) if I travel really, really fast (speed of light kind of fast) away from earth and back, time will actually have past slower for me than for the people of earth. That is to say, I will still be somewhat young (uhum), whereas all the people of earth will ha ...[text shortened]... ed back in time (and we probably won't care much).
Anyone up for the test?
slow? Say you go out at one inch per year and you go one mile
and then come back. You would be 126,000 years into the future.
Originally posted by sonhouseI merely toyed with the idea. Reading the post it's obvious I haven't thought it through properly. You do realize that despite all the hype about travelling in time, you're not actually travelling forward in time when you move really, really fast?
Are you perhaps forgetting the time you lose going really really
slow? Say you go out at one inch per year and you go one mile
and then come back. You would be 126,000 years into the future.
It's a relativity thing. Time will not affect your physics while you travel the speed of light, the way it affects the physics of the people left behind. Thus, you will still be physically young whereas those left behind will have grown a little older (physically). Timewise, you're both still in the same time. The same amount of time (an abstract concept besides) will have actually past for you and for them. But they will have experienced it as much slower. Which is why it's like travelling forward in time.
But if you really did travel forward in time, then the process would be reversible and you would be able to travel back again. Which of course is impossible (using this theory). Because, so far as I know, the opposite of speed of light (the opposite of speed) is no movement at all. And that would only freeze time. Thus, my ridiculous idea that instead of sending us away through space, we send earth away. Earth will have been physically less developed as us, and it would be earth travelling forward in our time (in the manner of speaking we're now using) and I just found the whole idea amusing.
The example you make is interesting. You say I would be 126,000 years into the future if I move one inch per year, one mile and back. But I would also be long gone because travelling one inch per year does not preserve your physical state in any way. However, if you travelled at the ligt of speed (assuming you'd get the mathematics right) I suppose it's possible you could come back in 126,000 years and still be alive an kicking. In that sense, you will have travelled forward in time. But to move really slow and go back in time is of course a ridiculous idea (albeit amusing).