Einstein has 2 theories of realivity. The Special theory of relativey and the General theory of realtivity.
The first simply means this in layman's terms. All laws of physics laws are valid given that the state of object is in Uniform motion. (uniform motion means a constant state of acceleration)
The General theory of relativity is all about gravity. Basically it is a theory to explain the force of gravity.
Although Neither theorys specifically mention time travel, many people have used the specifics of these theorys to try to show whether time travel is indeed possible.
One of the principals of the general theory is that no object can travel faster than the speed of light. Although this seems like qquite a simple statment it really isn't. If you think about light and the things you are seeing "lets say your looking at the stars" The light coming from those stars has traveled billions of miles to get to earth. You are in fact seeing the light that a certain star has emmited in the past. Now if you were to travel faster than light you could in effect travel through time and reach light events that people have yet to see.
Now at face value you would say well since the theory of relativly states you can't travel faster than light this is impossible. Here lies the catch. The speed of light is always the speed of light (meaning if you were in car traveling at the speed of light down the road and you turned your headlights on the speed of the light from the headlights would still travel away from the car at the speed of light).
Now let's say your a person standing on some point and were watching the car travel at the speed of light. The light that is coming from the cars headlights would to you seem to be traveling at 2times the speed of light. Get it?
So when speaking relativisticly the frame of refrence is the most important factor. Now one thing to note that time is NOT a constant. It has been proven that the faster an object moves the slower time is for that object. This indeed does work for everyday activities such as your car driving down the road. Time for you is accually an extremely tiny bit slower than it is for the tree that you past on the road.
SO if we "could" get an object to move the speed of light or greater time could either stop or go in reverse for that object. We cannot get matter to the speed of light at this time. We have gotten close, but right now the laws of physics seem to prevent that.
2006-11-18 09:33:34
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answer #1
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answered by travis R 4
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It does, but only into the future. Going into the Past would require accelerating TO the speed of light which nothing with mass can do (at least to our knowledge, since that would take infinite energy to do.)
So, if you want to head into the future its ideal. Just leave the earth, acquire a % of the speed of light, and then travel for a few light years (the farther you travel, the further you travel into the future). Return to earth and you will be perhaps 100-200 years in the future, even though it may have only taken 5 or 6 years for you. This is because of the time dilation effect. That is, the faster you go, the slower time is, relative to you. Outside in the normal universe, time still moves at its normal rate. However, now that your moving faster, nearer light-speed, time has slowed down for you, so everything is moving slower relative the "normal" universe.
In order to travel to the past, you would have to travel through a worm-hole or other exotic matter which we cannot control.
2006-11-18 17:20:49
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answer #2
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answered by AdamKadmon 7
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In short - "Yes". But it's quite a long and detailed answer.
In a nutshell - Einstein's theory of relativity predicts objects called 'Wormholes'. These effectively allow an object to travel faster than the speed of light. This is required to travel through time.
2006-11-18 17:19:28
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answer #3
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answered by wilkes_in_london 3
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Gosh--All these wrong answers! Let me ytry to help you, darlin'. Since I'm a southern boy (physics major at Univ. Tx. Austin.) OK: Einstein had TWO relativity theories: the special (1905) and the General (1930 I think.) The one you are interested in is the Special. He talked about the speed of light, and how, time actually slows down for one who is travelling at that speed. He talked about the "Twins Paradox" where one twin stayed on Earth and the other went on a space trip at the speed of light for many years. When he reutned, he would be much younger than the one who stayed on Earth. This theory has been proved, in supersonice jet flights, they have had clocks actually slow down! But keep in mind we're talking about maybe one-millionth of a second. Still, though: it proves the theory of Time Dilation!
But as far as time travel, no. As far as I know Eisntein never addressed it and probably did not believe in it.
2006-11-18 17:44:22
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answer #4
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answered by Anonymous
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isnt that the one where every action has an equal and opposite reaction? if so then no. If you want to understand that then find a newtons cradle and observe. lift one ball and let go the energy is transferred to the other side of the cradle and it is sufficiant to lift the ball on the other side of the cradle. simalarilly if you lift two and let those go then the energy transferred will be sufficient to lift two balls. this is the only way i can explain this i hope it helps
2006-11-18 17:13:08
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answer #5
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answered by Cff 2
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