Is time the 4th dimension ,if so can we travel through time.?

Question

Is time a dimension. Like in our other 3 dimensions can we travel through time. What are your views and please be serious.

Answer 1

Time is called a dimension because in Einstein's theory of relativity it makes mathematical sense to do so. Events happen in spacetime, 3 spatial and 1 time dimension. But their orientation in space and time relative to each other, depends on the observer and the relative speeds of the events.

In Einstein's formulas these dimensions are mixed by transformations depending on the velocities. This works only if we add time as a dimension.

Will we ever be able to travel to time? Well, weird things happen to the equations close to black holes and their mathematical opposites, white holes. So who knows?

But I don't think so... suppose sometime in the future time travel will be invented. Wouldn't we see these travellers once in a while?

Answer 2

As some of the other answers have pointed out, in relativity time is a dimension, but it is a special dimension. Time is the dimension we MUST travel along. We must travel along at "timelike" vector that resides within our future lightcone.

The lightcone is the 4-dimensional cone (actually, a sphere that expands at the speed of light) that is formed by the photons that would be emitted by a flash of light here and now. Since we cannot move faster than light, our future must always be inside the lightcone. It's called a "cone", because if you plot two space dimensions and one time dimension, this expanding sphere of photons looks like a cone. In such a space-time diagram, our future must always be inside the lightcone.

There is nothing particularly special about calling a variable a "dimension". You can just think of it as a label that is applied to an event in order to localize it in time and space: "the concert will start in the school auditorium at 5 PM". Without a time, the event is not specified. You cannot get to events that are outside your lightcone: "the concert will occur on alpha Centuri at 5 PM today".

Answer 3

Even in relativity theory, time is not exactly treated the same as the other dimensions. It isn't fully symmetrical, as much as Einstein wanted to put time on equal footing with the other dimensions. In general relativity theory, it's been proposed that through the use of wormholes travel through time would be possible, but general relativity is in fact not a complete theory. It doesn't explain everything, and competing theories such as quantum mechanics which does a better job explaining a lot of other things, don't allow for the possibility of time travel in the conventional sense. In no branch of physics it's considered that there is a perfect symmetry between time and space, so that "it ought to be possible to move through time as we do through space".

Answer 4

I've answered this before. Time is not a dimension until we can travel backwards or stop it. That is a key feature of the 3 dimensions.

Answer 5

I do personaly believe that there is a fourth dimension, but i believe that our bodies would not be able to stand it and our eyes could not show us anything. But if they would then we would be able to see every aspect of everything. From some of the theories i have been reading that we would have travel through a black whole, travel faster than the speed of light, having a gigantic round magnet spin counter-clock-wise in a great speed, or something along these lines that seems almost impossible.

Answer 6

Time is an illusionary mental construct that allows us to place events before or after another event. There really is no dimension of time. The only time that exists is the right now, this very moment. Every thing exists in this moment. What we precieve as the passage of time is actually changes of the states of matter that makes up our universe including the chemical reations and actions within our brains. Because we have memories of those actions, like seeing a picture or reading these words, we assign them to the past and use the movement of atoms, moons, planets, and stars to assign a period of passage to these memories. But no matter how much we try, how much we wish it, we are always right here in the infinit eternal now.

Answer 7

Time is not a dimension that we can travel "back and forth" in, unlike the 3 dimensions of space. If it were, there would be too many paradoxes that could cause reality to cease to be....like going back in time before you were born and killing your mother or father, for example. Such an event could cause you to cease to exist.
The "dimensions" just seem to me to be a concieved-by-man method of measurements...none of which would be particularly relevant without beings of intelligence and conciousness to perceive them....like numbers.
Personally, i think there exists as many dimensions as there are numbers to denote them.

Answer 8

I suppose you could call Time the 4th dimension if you wanted to .
And no, we cannot travel through time...

Answer 9

Time is a human construct which is our attempt at making sense of the way we perceive observable events. They appear to occur in a linear fashion that lends itself to measuring intervals between events. We give this concept a name....... time.

Time is like a river. Nobody has yet figured out how to reach the bank and walk back upstream or run downstream faster than the current.