but not into the past! why not?
2006-12-19 20:50:42 · 9 answers · asked by Tina M 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Past vs. Future in linear time. In linear time there is no way to cause it to go backwards, its like a bullet, it wants to go one direction, yes you can change its direction, in the case of time that would be the change in the speed at which it passes, but you can't actually get it to go backwards. There is some rather more complicated theories out there, which go far beyond what Einstein theorized, which if I remember right didn't completely rule out reveres travel through time, just ruled it out through any simple linear means, many of the newer theories use things like wormhole physics and parallel plains of existence to produce the outcome though, and without any real hard evidence other than words and ideas they are mostly written off as sci-fi notions.
2006-12-19 21:07:03 · answer #1 · answered by Mark G 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In fact, traveling into the future is a normal thing! We do it every day of our lives! So a "time machine" would only have to speeden up the process a bit.
On the other hand, traveling into the past is absurd. If you think it through, you end up with tons of paradox and contradictory results. Just imagine you would travel to the past and prevent your parents from ever meeting each other, this would make you non-existent.
2006-12-20 05:01:34 · answer #2 · answered by NaturalBornKieler 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That only takes into account the Einsteinian relativity method of time travel - run around at the speed of light, and time slows down for you, thus you get further into the future than what your watch says the time is.
The other factor is that you shouldn't go back in time. Haven't you ever watched those time-travel movies, go back far enough and you're bound to create a paradox. I have no idea what would actually happen if you did that, but I'd prefer not to be around when we find out.
2006-12-20 04:56:21 · answer #3 · answered by tgypoi 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Apparently right: Stephen Hawkins explains it well.
If a time machine is invented, it could only be used to travel in time, backward and forward, but only to and from the date it has been invented.
If someone had invented a time machine in, say 1900, you could go back, now, to 1900, but NOT to 1899...
But, who knows, maybe Leonardo da Vinci already designed that time machine!
2006-12-20 05:00:23 · answer #4 · answered by just "JR" 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it is not at all possible to go back or front in time but u can see the past if u travel faster with the speed of light(if possible) Stars u see in the night sky are what they were 4000 years ago or something like that.same concept we use it here .that is if u want to see how earth 1000 years ago hop in to a space ship that travels faster that the speed of light ,(earth image will be 1000 light years far frm earth)u can catch it somewhre in space .see u saw the past
2006-12-20 05:43:15 · answer #5 · answered by ilovenature 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's a time paradox... if you could travel into the past you would be able to kill yourself before you were able to go back into the past to kill yourself.
There's two possible ways around this... 1. some unknown force stops you from interacting with yourself
2. you actually enter into another parallel time line (infinite universes and all that) so that you don't screw up your own time line.
Peace
2006-12-20 05:01:45 · answer #6 · answered by zingis 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Honeslty, even though I'm a bid scifi fan, I believe time travel is an impossibility.
2006-12-20 05:00:06 · answer #7 · answered by freaky 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Perhaps it has something to do with going back to the time when one of your grand parents was a child and accidentally killing them.......
2006-12-20 05:43:29 · answer #8 · answered by rosie recipe 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I assume because what is done can not be undone!
2006-12-20 04:54:49 · answer #9 · answered by Roubini 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋