Time travel in lay man's language?

Question

How can we explain the intriguing phenomenon of time travel in a lay man's language? What are the theories regarding the possible means of travelling through time ? What is the basic concept and working mechanism of "time machines" ?

Answer 1

The basic working mechanism of Time Travel is imagination.

Answer 2

There is no working mechanism that allows for travel either forward or backward in time.

However, while we can't actually travel through time, we can take a real-time look at the past.

Light travels at about 186,000 miles a second. When scientists use the term "light year," they mean the distance travels in a year. Now suppose a planet or a star, or a galaxy is 1000 light years away... the light that reaches us today left that planet, star, or galaxy, 1000 years ago. So, we are looking back 1000 years into the history of that planet, star of galaxy. But, we're not actually GOING there.

The Sun is 93 million miles away. It takes the Sun's light about 8 minutes and 20 seconds to get here. We therefore don't know at any minute whether the Sun is still there. All we know is that it was there a little over 8 minutes ago.

However, there is no way to look forward in time.

Answer 3

The time travel theory is exactly that, a theory. There is nothing that can fully explain this theory because there is no way to properly experiment.
The major problem with the theory is that most everyone who hears the word "travel" immediately thinks of an origin and a destination. The problem is that it is not travel at all. We cannot travel to somewhere that doesn't exist. We need to look at moving through time as more of a warp. Warping is a concept that means the actual timeline can be manipulated, or bent or manipulated in some way, which is impossible. If you look at time as a string of events in different dimensions, then you would have to accept the fact that there ARE different dimensions, which also is only a hypothesis. Knowing what we know, we can only conclusively say that there is one dimension, the one that we currently exist in, and therefore is no possibility of moving into another dimension, or destination, because they do not exist.

Answer 4

There aren't any 'working mechanisms.' I assume you've read the related article on Yahoo today...

Basically, the thinking is that a strong enough gravitational force could alter the 'shape' of spacetime to allow a traveler to access and enter what from his/her perspective would be a past point in time.
It's all nonsense, though. We don't even understand gravity yet.

Edit: The closed-mindedness of modern science never ceases to amaze me. See the astrophysicist below who would purport to tell you what is and isn't possible. Perhaps at this point you can't conceive of how feat X might be achieved, but that certainly doesn't mean that no one ever will.
I believe at least some of these attitudes are prompted by the politics of science, i.e. who gets the funding and why. I detect a great deal of ego and sniping of others' ideas - especially new ideas not necessarily supported by contemporary models.
Personally, I believe relativity to be fundamentally flawed, an incomplete understanding.

Answer 5

A Time machine is really a Clock. it started as a pendulum, then it became a Grandfather clock and as time evolved it became a wristwatch.
The concept of a Pendulum time machine is that it swing a pendulum which is gearing to an escapement mechanism which registers each Tic of a swing unto a gearing system ,turning a needle on the face of the Clock indicating how long the process of oscilation of the pendulum took place.
The Time Period of the swing is Gravity Field dependent.
The stronger the Gravity field the faster the swing of the pendulum.
The more number of time the pendulum swings the longer the time the clock reads.
Clocks reading slower time ,in a gravity field is what gave Einstein the Idea of "Time dilation "which depended on what frame of reference in the Gravity Field you are reading (observing)the clock.
As Far as Traveling with a clock(time) Navigators used special clocks while sailing to located themselves on the meridians.
I travel with time myself and I have a good time machine to keep track of it. Today instead of using a pendulum a quartz Watch is Used.

Answer 6

If you go at any speed you will experience a time dilation (a change in how fast time passes). The faster you go the larger the difference. If you travel at or close to the speed of light time will stop for you. Anyone who is not traveling at the speed of light will experience time going by as usually.

Think of it this way. You are in a car traveling on the free way at 55 MPH. Another ar traveling next to you is also traveling 55 MPH. You look at it and it seems that is is not moving. To anyone standing on the side of the freeway the car is going 55 MPH.

So you are traveling in a time machine. Time is the other car. And the person standing is the person not traveling at the speed of light.

So if you go as fast as light it will seem its not moving or at least going slower. To anyone not traveling at the speed of time it will just be the same.

Answer 7

Time travel is pure science fiction, and will never be anything else. The whole idea is illogical.

The past and the future are not places you can travel to, like Paris or Tokyo.

You can't go to the past because it no longer exists.

You can't go to the future because it doesn't exist yet.

So it's just a matter of simple logic that time travel will not happen. Sorry; entertainment only.

Answer 8

Einstein theorized that if we were to travel faster than light, we would travel back in time. Have a look for Einsteins Theory of Relativity