wouldn't it make sense to also be able to travel through the fourth dimension of time? And, if we are moving through time, what set us in motion in the first place? Think about it...
2007-01-11 14:01:29 · 12 answers · asked by Siervocal 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Our Universe is made up of three dimensions of space: sideways, up and down, forward and backward, and one dimension of time. If we can travel through the three dimensions of space, wouldn't it make sense that you can also travel through the dimension of time? I'm not suggesting a way on HOW to do this, I'm just saying that logically it is possible.
2007-01-11 14:13:11 · update #1
I don't think it necessarily follows that just because we can travel through three spatial dimensions we can also travel through a temporal dimension. Also, according to string theory there are something like 9 or 10 spatial dimensions instead of 3, and at this point we aren't able to travel through those either.
As for what sets us in motion through time, I'm not sure anything has to have actively set us in motion. Seems like time may be a necessary and inherent part of the universe and our movement through it is as much a product of our perception and our place being 'trapped' in the universe as anything.
2007-01-11 14:12:58 · answer #1 · answered by Musmanno 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, you are traveling through time, all the time, along with the rest of us!
You don't even need to get up out of your chair to do so either, you just naturally travel through time. In a minute you will be a minute farther along in time, along with the rest of us, so we are all traveling through time, all more or less at the same rate.
It is possible for you to change the *rate* that you travel through time from the rate of the rest of us, in one of two ways: One is by moving at some higher velocity than us, and two, is by experiencing a greater gravational force than us: these will slow down the "ticking" rate of your passage of time *as the rest of us see it*, or speed up our passage of our time *as you see it*. But your own passage of time will always seem the same to you.
Actual experiments have been run that demonstrate this. If you take a precision time interval counter and take it up a 100 foot tower for a while it will have run a bit faster than an equivalent timer on the ground, because it experienced a lesser gravitational acceleration than the one on the ground. Same thing if you put the counter in a 747 moving for a while, when you return it you find that it ran at a "slower rate" than you did not moving on the ground. The time-changing effects are very real.
The GPS satellites take into account the "faster" rate of passage of time aboard the satellite due to the lesser g-forces acting on it than down here on earth.
But, as far as I know, there is no physical way to completely stop or to reverse the passage of time. We all move in the same direction of time, even if some of us can move at different rates.
2007-01-11 18:51:13 · answer #2 · answered by Radzewicz 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I believe time travel is possible, but I am not sure I look forward to the day it happens. I think people being selfish or just people being people in general, would travel to the past, for personal gain. What if you could travel back, buy a ticket for the lottery, because you were privy to the winning numbers. Do you really think you would not buy the winning ticket? I am sure I would.
2007-01-11 14:07:21 · answer #3 · answered by Scott 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can travel in 3 demensions
x (sideways)
y (forward/backward)
z (up or down)
I think you mean the 4th dimension, which is to connect
two points in space as if they were one point, therefore reducing the travel time. It is know as punching, which means to open a black hole and come out instantaneously light years away.
2007-01-11 14:06:49 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
As you approach the speed of light, you go slower through time. Interstingly enough, you don't realize this. So, at 99.99% the speed of light for ten seconds, it is actuall like travelling a great deal futher than 10 light-seconds. (I didn't want to do the math involved) You needn't understand it, just know that it's true.
2007-01-11 14:17:18 · answer #5 · answered by OobyDooby 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
first things first. you CAN NOT travel though time. To do so, you have to travel faster than the speed of light. But, More speed = more mass, so infinite speed = infinite mass = no motion.
I wish we could go in 4th dimension, but even technology can't solve this problem.
2007-01-11 14:07:17 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
We can and do travel in time. Travel into the future is possible and practical. Travel into the past is theoretically possible but the engineering is unknown
2007-01-11 14:13:10 · answer #7 · answered by walter_b_marvin 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Time is not a spatial dimension and therefore the laws of spatial physics cannot be applied to it. You can not move along time as you would a 3 dimensional rope, time is kind of like a placeholder we use to catalog our own self awareness.
2007-01-12 09:22:42 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
But we are travelling in time.
I've travelled 10 seconds forward while answering this question.
2007-01-11 14:05:28 · answer #9 · answered by Andrew 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Maybe our rate of travel through time does vary, but we're just unable to tell, because relative to us it seems constant?
2007-01-11 14:10:22 · answer #10 · answered by InitialDave 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋