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  #1  
Old September 28th 03, 11:44 AM
Whisper
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Default Time travel


Can someone explain in layman's terms how time travel is possible the closer
we get to speed of light?

I understand it's not possible to travel 'back' in time, only forward.

Layman's terms or don't bother.... ; )




  #2  
Old September 28th 03, 01:27 PM
G.P
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"Whisper" wrote in message
...

Can someone explain in layman's terms how time travel is possible the

closer
we get to speed of light?


How: Time dilation afforded by Einstein Special Relativity. The faster you
travel the slower your internal clocks runs with respect to someone
stationary or traveling slower. If someone 40 years old with a newly born
child were to leave earth (alone, leaving the child behind) traveling at 98%
of the speed of light and come back 10 years of his clock after he left, he
would be 50 years old, his newly born child would also be 50 years old!!

Google it for more information.

Guillermo


  #3  
Old September 28th 03, 01:27 PM
G.P
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Posts: n/a
Default


"Whisper" wrote in message
...

Can someone explain in layman's terms how time travel is possible the

closer
we get to speed of light?


How: Time dilation afforded by Einstein Special Relativity. The faster you
travel the slower your internal clocks runs with respect to someone
stationary or traveling slower. If someone 40 years old with a newly born
child were to leave earth (alone, leaving the child behind) traveling at 98%
of the speed of light and come back 10 years of his clock after he left, he
would be 50 years old, his newly born child would also be 50 years old!!

Google it for more information.

Guillermo


  #4  
Old September 28th 03, 08:37 PM
Jonathan Silverlight
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Default

In message , Whisper
writes

Can someone explain in layman's terms how time travel is possible the closer
we get to speed of light?

I understand it's not possible to travel 'back' in time, only forward.


Actually, one of the problems with relativity is that it has no problems
with time travel into the past.
I don't usually discuss anything to do with relativity, because it gives
me a headache :-) but I'll just note that the time dilation effect (and
the related apparent shrinkage of rulers moving at high speeds) is
because there is no such thing as absolute time, because the laws of
science are the same for everyone, and in particular the speed of light
is the same. If you are moving close to the speed of light you see it
cover less distance in a given time than if you are stationary. The
speed is the same, so time "must" be passing more slowly.
--
"Forty millions of miles it was from us, more than forty millions of miles of
void"
Remove spam and invalid from address to reply.
  #5  
Old September 28th 03, 08:37 PM
Jonathan Silverlight
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Posts: n/a
Default

In message , Whisper
writes

Can someone explain in layman's terms how time travel is possible the closer
we get to speed of light?

I understand it's not possible to travel 'back' in time, only forward.


Actually, one of the problems with relativity is that it has no problems
with time travel into the past.
I don't usually discuss anything to do with relativity, because it gives
me a headache :-) but I'll just note that the time dilation effect (and
the related apparent shrinkage of rulers moving at high speeds) is
because there is no such thing as absolute time, because the laws of
science are the same for everyone, and in particular the speed of light
is the same. If you are moving close to the speed of light you see it
cover less distance in a given time than if you are stationary. The
speed is the same, so time "must" be passing more slowly.
--
"Forty millions of miles it was from us, more than forty millions of miles of
void"
Remove spam and invalid from address to reply.
  #6  
Old September 29th 03, 04:39 AM
Ookie Wonderslug
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On Sun, 28 Sep 2003 12:27:24 GMT, "G.P" wrote:


"Whisper" wrote in message
...

Can someone explain in layman's terms how time travel is possible the

closer
we get to speed of light?


How: Time dilation afforded by Einstein Special Relativity. The faster you
travel the slower your internal clocks runs with respect to someone
stationary or traveling slower. If someone 40 years old with a newly born
child were to leave earth (alone, leaving the child behind) traveling at 98%
of the speed of light and come back 10 years of his clock after he left, he
would be 50 years old, his newly born child would also be 50 years old!!

Google it for more information.

Guillermo


That makes some sense, but in reality if one were to travel to the
nearest star at light speed it would take only 4.something years to
get there, Your watch may be wrong, but elapsed time will have been
those 4. years. If once you got there you discovered that there were
no planets and no reason to be there and promptly went home, you would
find that just about 9 years have elapsed since you left So in
reality no time dilation has really occurred. It just seems from your
perspective that it didn't take that long to make the trip. Why it
would be like that has never been explained to me in a way that I
would understand it though. I have seen the illustrations and get
that, but why would it be like that? There seems to be no logical
reason for it. I guess it could be counted as a perk of space travel.
Once you get to C the immense distances seem smaller and long trips
become much less time consuming to the astronauts.
But why does that happen? What is the mechanism that causes the effect
of time "squeezing" for those going at or near C?


  #7  
Old September 29th 03, 04:39 AM
Ookie Wonderslug
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Posts: n/a
Default

On Sun, 28 Sep 2003 12:27:24 GMT, "G.P" wrote:


"Whisper" wrote in message
...

Can someone explain in layman's terms how time travel is possible the

closer
we get to speed of light?


How: Time dilation afforded by Einstein Special Relativity. The faster you
travel the slower your internal clocks runs with respect to someone
stationary or traveling slower. If someone 40 years old with a newly born
child were to leave earth (alone, leaving the child behind) traveling at 98%
of the speed of light and come back 10 years of his clock after he left, he
would be 50 years old, his newly born child would also be 50 years old!!

Google it for more information.

Guillermo


That makes some sense, but in reality if one were to travel to the
nearest star at light speed it would take only 4.something years to
get there, Your watch may be wrong, but elapsed time will have been
those 4. years. If once you got there you discovered that there were
no planets and no reason to be there and promptly went home, you would
find that just about 9 years have elapsed since you left So in
reality no time dilation has really occurred. It just seems from your
perspective that it didn't take that long to make the trip. Why it
would be like that has never been explained to me in a way that I
would understand it though. I have seen the illustrations and get
that, but why would it be like that? There seems to be no logical
reason for it. I guess it could be counted as a perk of space travel.
Once you get to C the immense distances seem smaller and long trips
become much less time consuming to the astronauts.
But why does that happen? What is the mechanism that causes the effect
of time "squeezing" for those going at or near C?


  #8  
Old September 29th 03, 10:40 AM
Odysseus
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Posts: n/a
Default

Ookie Wonderslug wrote:

That makes some sense, but in reality if one were to travel to the
nearest star at light speed it would take only 4.something years to
get there, Your watch may be wrong, but elapsed time will have been
those 4. years. If once you got there you discovered that there were
no planets and no reason to be there and promptly went home, you would
find that just about 9 years have elapsed since you left So in
reality no time dilation has really occurred. It just seems from your
perspective that it didn't take that long to make the trip. Why it
would be like that has never been explained to me in a way that I
would understand it though. I have seen the illustrations and get
that, but why would it be like that? There seems to be no logical
reason for it. I guess it could be counted as a perk of space travel.
Once you get to C the immense distances seem smaller and long trips
become much less time consuming to the astronauts.
But why does that happen? What is the mechanism that causes the effect
of time "squeezing" for those going at or near C?


Maybe this section of the Usenet Physics FAQ will help:

http://tinyurl.com/p0s0.

Here's a site with more links to pursue:

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/relativity.html.

--
Odysseus
  #9  
Old September 29th 03, 10:40 AM
Odysseus
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Posts: n/a
Default

Ookie Wonderslug wrote:

That makes some sense, but in reality if one were to travel to the
nearest star at light speed it would take only 4.something years to
get there, Your watch may be wrong, but elapsed time will have been
those 4. years. If once you got there you discovered that there were
no planets and no reason to be there and promptly went home, you would
find that just about 9 years have elapsed since you left So in
reality no time dilation has really occurred. It just seems from your
perspective that it didn't take that long to make the trip. Why it
would be like that has never been explained to me in a way that I
would understand it though. I have seen the illustrations and get
that, but why would it be like that? There seems to be no logical
reason for it. I guess it could be counted as a perk of space travel.
Once you get to C the immense distances seem smaller and long trips
become much less time consuming to the astronauts.
But why does that happen? What is the mechanism that causes the effect
of time "squeezing" for those going at or near C?


Maybe this section of the Usenet Physics FAQ will help:

http://tinyurl.com/p0s0.

Here's a site with more links to pursue:

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/relativity.html.

--
Odysseus
  #10  
Old September 29th 03, 01:24 PM
G=EMC^2 Glazier
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Posts: n/a
Default

Hi Whisper Time can only stop,slow down or move towards the future. If
we could find a blackhole a LY away and parked our spaceship outside the
event horizon for a year when we came back to Earth 10,000 years would
have gone by. That seems the easiest way to go to the future. It proves
Einstien was right again strong gravity and great speed are the same
thing. Inertia and gravity are the same thing. Finding the
sameness the way nature creates and evolves stuff can show reality.
Bert

 




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