• Question: is time travel possible ?

    Asked by rich to Ellen, Elliot, Hazel, Rupesh, Thomas on 10 Jun 2016. This question was also asked by ECl4rky, 368bsmf24, Kayleighjw.
    • Photo: Elliot Jokl

      Elliot Jokl answered on 10 Jun 2016:

      Good question!

      I don’t know! I don’t know enough of the physics to give a proper answer. But one of the more interesting “experiments” about time travel was quite funny:

      Stephen Hawking organised a party for time travelers, but only released the details of when and where it was after the party had finished, so only people from the future could possibly know when and where to show up. Nobody came, so either time travel is impossible, or the people who invent it are not party people…

    • Photo: Thomas Biggans

      Thomas Biggans answered on 11 Jun 2016:

      Put simply yes, we can go forwards.

      Space and time are linked together whenever you go somewhere it takes you time to travel there. There is a universal speed limit that nothing can go faster than and that is the speed of light so some theorise that to time travel you’d have to find a way of going faster than light which as far as we know is impossible.

      But if you could fold space (which we think is possible) and hop across the crease then you’ve just travelled somewhere without using any time. Now depending on your perspective you travelled really fast or you travelled and then you went back in time the amount of time it would’ve taken you to travel. In any case you’re still moving forward.

    • Photo: Hazel Garvie-Cook

      Hazel Garvie-Cook answered on 15 Jun 2016:

      Time is a really weird and cool when you start to learn more about it.
      Einstein did a lot of work on time in his relativity theories. These theories are pretty tricky to get your head around! But you could check out some videos on youtube about it.
      There are also some theories in particle physics where particles travel backwards in time. These particles aren’t solid particles as we’d naturally think of them, but might make up atoms or might be there to play a part in the interaction of other particles. Again, tricky to get your head around! And very different to people time travelling. Particle physics is the kind of thing that CERN, the particle accelerator that you might have heard about in the news, does.

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