First time I’m discussing some concept elaborated on my blog. As one of my professor started discussing about time travel in the class, eventually, I started thinking of it. I wanted to find out what are the main barriers for time travel. I’m trying my best to describe why time travel is not possible. Before thinking of time travel you should be clear about the definition of time. What time actually is? It’s very difficult to define time. we can’t either touch or see time. It’s just a sense. The evidence for we moving through time can be given in everything(like growth in our body , change in weather etc….). Second, minute , hour , day , year…these are not the exact definitions of time. These are the durations of time which we have framed for our convenience. Now we are clear about time. It’s time to move ahead to the concept of time travel.(some of the proposed time traveling machines are shown in figs)
As the name suggests, time travel is the concept of moving either backward or forward between two points in time. How nice it would be, if time travel is possible…!you can go back in time and meet your forefathers or your favorite actors or players who have passed away. Or you can go into future and see all the events that are happening there. These are the main advantages of time travel which made scientists think of it. If you observe keenly, we all are time travelers in some or the other way. Even if you are not doing anything but simply sitting and watching television without your knowledge time is traveling around you. The present is being converted to past at the same time future to present. So, what ever people are trying now is not entirely new. What they are trying is that to travel rapidly in time. Einstein’s theory of special relativity laid a good foundation for this concept. But till now nobody had actually demonstrated how it works, at the same time even in the negative aspect too.
According to the twin paradox, in which a person goes into space in a high speed rocket and returns his home, where he finds himself aged less than his twin who stayed on the earth. This result proves that time travel to future is possible. Let’s talk about the relation between special relativity and time travel. It is proving that time travel into future is possible indirectly by twin paradox. If you think of traveling into past, then this theory will not suite as good as for forward time travel. Many people approached time travel in a different perspective. They tried to make use of the theory which says that, time will slow down as your speed increases. so if you can travel with a velocity more than that of light then is there any possibility of traveling back??? But the fact is that without touching velocity of light you can not travel with a greater velocity than that of light. According to special relativity theory, at a velocity equal to light, time stops and length contracts to zero and resistance to acceleration becomes infinity which forces you to put up infinite energy which is impossible. This is one way of thinking about time travel.
However there are many other paradoxes(Which are also known as barriers) to be considered for time travel like Grandfather paradox in which you go back in time and kill your grandfather which turns for the non-existence of one of your parents there by non-existence of you. These paradoxes put time travel concept in dilemma.
Another theory about time travel gives rise to parallel universe. Let’s suppose you went back in time and killed your grandfather. You might have gone to some other universe which is similar to ours but which has different succession of events. So, even if you kill your grandfather you would have killed him in different universe. The universe in which you killed your grandfather is not the universe you exist in. Every action give rise to the creation of new universe. By killing your grandfather you created a new universe which is similar to that of yours till the time you went and killed your grandfather. Theory of special relativity stated that “As any object approaches speed of light, the time stops. This gave a thought that time travel is possible if you can attain a speed more than that of speed of light. But when a body reaches the speed of sound, then it’s mass increases to infinity. As we all know it is very difficult to accelerate infinite mass object. Hence time travel can’t be possible. More over, Speed of light(Approx.300,000,000 m/sec or ~Mach No. of 909,090.9090) will be considered as the maximum speed at which something can travel. So obtaining a speed of more than that of light is impossible which in turn mentions that time travel is also not possible.
-waiting for comments from readers….
Prahallada J
No comments:
Post a Comment