Einstein once said that if you travel at the speed of light, time stops.?

Question

If we learned to travel at the speed of light, couldn't we travel the whole universe without aging?

Answer 1

The real theory here is that time is relative.

Time is relative to one's position, as in time has no single definition. If one is moving away from earth at the speed of light, it appears to them as if time is standing still. But this is not true, because if they were to move back toward the earth (and back to their original position), "time" would fast-forward and light would pass by them at the same rate, relative to their velocity, that they were earlier moving away from.

If that made sense, you'll realize that time is relative to those experiencing it. There is not one rate of time for every object in the universe, the way each object experiences time depends on its postition and velocity.

If we moved away from the earth at the speed of light, our time would still be going - we would be able to see each other at real-time because we are all moving at the same rate - the only time that would stop is that of what we're moving away from. But the moment we stop, or start moving back towards the earth, that "time", or light passing by us, will catch back up.

I hope that made sense. It's quite hard to explain.

Answer 2

Yes, according to Einstein theory of relativity this happens. Einstein said that the universe is made from the space time fabric which is connected to each other, when one object is stationary, then its traveling only in time, when it moves then its traveling in space and time together, the faster you get the more you travel in space and less in time. Speed of light is a cosmic speed limit for any object in the universe. At this speed an object moving travels only in space and zero travel in time, so theoretically times stops there.

Answer 3

If you left Earth at almost the speed of light and I stayed behind, if I could observe a clock on your spaceship it would appear to be moving slower than mine. However, to you aboard the ship your clock appears to be ticking away as usual. You would age at the same rate as if you hadn't rocketed off at almost the speed of light, but when you got back to Earth everyone would have aged more quickly *relative* to you. That's why it's called Einstein's Theory of Relativity.

Answer 4

You would still age. It still takes light many years to travel across the universe. You would age, but slower than folks living on Earth.

Answer 5

Heres a rough example of realitivity. Say you are on a train travelling through the countryside, and on the train you are playing ping pong. Now you hit the ball across the table. You would say the ball went a few feet. Someone standing outside the train, would say the ball travelled several dozen feet. Both answers are correct, but its all realitive to who the observer is.

Answer 6

time DOESN"T stop our perception of it varies as the environment we are in varies like if u were in a microgravity environment or traveling really fast, its called time dilation people on earth will see u fly at the speed of light in a blink of an eye but u will feel normal although time is moving slower for u theoretically of course :P
so until we actually try it nothing is truly certain

Answer 7

Are u kidding me...what is age...its not just a number...one way or another u are not gonna live forever. beside it takes about 8 minute for the sun light to reach earth. And the universe is huge....now assume that.

Answer 8

Yes, and no. Time does not exist for light. His theory also says that it is impossible for anything made of physical matter to travel at the speed of light (for reasons too esoteric to get into in this forum). So, unfortunately, it's impossible to travel "at the speed of light". However, as you "approach" the speed of light time slows down (compared to someone back where you started your journey) - the closer you get to the speed of light, the more it slows down relative to that starting point. This is referred to as the Relativistic effect of velocity. Enough already.

Answer 9

Yes but your mass would go to infinity so the entire universe would actually come to meet you.

Answer 10

Theoretically, -It does! (But I don't think I'd want to hear the SAME old "news" about Paris Hilton & Brittaney Speares- for eternity! Even at our current "speed"- I've had ENOUGH already! :( ).