Let's say i take a jet which flies at a very high speed. I take off from Europe at 10.00AM to USA and i reach USA in 3 hours local time 6AM. Does this mean that i've been in the past?
It's kinda cool because i would be able to see the same sunrise twice a day . lol
2007-08-04 08:16:30 · 11 answers · asked by Cristian 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
so you tell me that if i fly at the speed of light or near it(which is currently impossible) if i would stay 50 years in that spacecraft and then get out i would see that the world has aged 100 years?
2007-08-04 08:31:29 · update #1
rick....cool experience....i think it's very confusing when you see the sun move backwards and even set in the EST lol...freaky nature ^_^
2007-08-04 08:33:58 · update #2
lol...no it was just a silly question...i know that it's not true :)
2007-08-04 10:33:04 · update #3
No. What you have done is travelled to a different time zone. Time zones were established by man in 1884 so that the Sun would appear generally overhead at noon. There are 24 zones. The US proclamation was intended to divide the world into 15 degree latitude lines but this ran into problems with dividing land masses and countries. Not all countries adhered to the proclamation. Some set their own zone divisions. China for example has only one zone.
Crossing a time zone does not in any way constitute travelling forwards or backwards in time. All you are doing is resetting your watch to the local time. When you arrive on the trip back to Europe, you reset your watch again to the local time.
lithium's answer is correct. clittles's answer is correct. Your additional details regarding the travel of a spacecraft is also correct.
2007-08-04 08:59:05 · answer #1 · answered by Troasa 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
When I went to the Philippines local time Arizona 8:00 A.M. and arrived into China about 6:00 P.M. local time and it was day the whole way until we got to China and the sun started to set but the whole way it stayed noon which was so weird cause it was evening at home but around noon somewhere over the Pacific. Coming back home we had about 3 or so hrs. of daylight half way through this movie it got dark then light again a few hrs. later when we touched down in California. It was so weird.
2007-08-04 18:40:13 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you measure time by the sun, then I guess it SORT OF means you've traveled into the past.
From your point of view, the sun would rise in the east and head westward until 10:00 AM; then (during your flight) the sun would seem to reverse and go back eastward--possibly even setting in the east! Then after you landed, the sun would rise again.
I recently travelled from Minneapolis at 7:00 PM (still light out) to London at 9:00 AM. The trip over consisted of a "short night"--the sun was "down" for only about 3 hours, and it never got completely dark. The trip back consisted of a "long day"--left about noon London time and arrived about 2:00 PM central time, meanwhile 8 daylight hours had elapsed during the flight, and I still had a long time to wait until sunset. It's an odd experience.
2007-08-04 15:31:18 · answer #3 · answered by RickB 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
No. If your question refers to relativity, the passage of time would slow for the plane (from the standpoint of a stationary observer on the ground) but only infinitesimally so. You're not actually going back in time. If anything, you could consider it travelling into the future, but keep in mind that the time scales involved are truly miniscule (you need an atomic clock to measure the time differential).
If your question refers to moving between time zones, the answer is still no. The time zones are artificial concepts, which can prove confusing. Time still travels forward in all of the time zones; travelling between them doesn't constitute time travel.
At every moment, the sun is rising somewhere on the Earth. So if you want to see it rise twice within 24 hours, you need to be able to travel faster than the Earth's rotation. Astronauts in orbit see the Sun rise roughly every 90 minutes, but this doesn't mean that they're travelling back in time.
2007-08-04 15:38:32 · answer #4 · answered by clitt1234 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
No because time is still moving ahead even when you are flying. It just means that you have flown to a different part of the world where the time is different. You would have to exceed the speed of light to travel in to the past...assuming it was possible. Hope this helps amigo!
2007-08-04 15:36:30 · answer #5 · answered by justask23 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I have actually seen about an hour long sunset while flying across country. It feels like time is frozen, but time always flows forward. It is only our concept of time, which is based on where the sun (or moon) is in relation to ourselves that makes it seem like time has stopped or gone backward.
2007-08-04 15:27:28 · answer #6 · answered by fizzygod 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
No. Time flows forward, regardless of the names humans arbitrarily assign to different parts of the Earth.
However, if your jet flew at near the speed of light, 1 second might pass on Earth, while only 0.5 seconds would pass for you on the spaceship, due to relativistic time dilation. This would mean you only aged 0.5 seconds, while the rest of the planet aged 1 second.
2007-08-04 15:24:45 · answer #7 · answered by lithiumdeuteride 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Well, no, sorry. You have traveled, period. You have entered a different time zone and not the Twilight Zone, dear. Time travel may indeed be possible, I have no experience or information about that, but your chronological life has traveled forward. Did I burst your balloon?
2007-08-04 17:24:33 · answer #8 · answered by swarr2001 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Lol. Technically, No.
But It's A Cool Azz Thought. :D
2007-08-04 15:24:19 · answer #9 · answered by Laura Duh 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
in a way you have traveled into the future...
because your time would be 3 hours.older
but the world would be 3 hours plus depending on the
speed you traveled
2007-08-04 15:25:29 · answer #10 · answered by pokerfaces55 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋