There are 57 articles on this title. You are reading the article ranked and rated #19 by Helium's members.
Science fiction has at times translated into science fact. Could this still be the case in our modern age? Could the vivid imaginations of sci-fi writers be somehow made into fact by our kind's most brilliant minds? One such piece of science fiction that attracts attention of amateurs and scientists alike is time travel. Could we go back in time to change the past for instance kill Hitler or warn the citizens of Chicago of Mrs. O'Leary's cow?
The scientific answer to that is drawn from the theoretical physics division of science where brilliant minds work on figuring out what we cannot see with math and creativity. Leading physicists on the subject are Stephen Hawking, Kip Thorne and Roger Penrose. These men are easily considered the best physicists of our time and they have devoted time to and even bet on the possibility of time travel.
Most time machines in movies are depicted to be almost alien-looking craft that speed off with incredible speed into toward the past. This approach is out because traveling faster than the speed of light is prohibited by Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. Anything accelerating to the speed of light would have to be able to increase its mass infinitely since energy equals mass (E=mC2). The one possibility considered by physics experts to be possible, be it slim, is the theoretical Einstein-Rosen Bridge.
An Einstein-Rosen Bridge is better known as a wormhole. A wormhole is caused by black hole having so much gravity that it actually bends the fabric of space-time so much that it creates a passage between two points that is shorter than a straight line. Think of space-time as a piece of paper with the black hole being a black dot at one end of the page. The gravity of the dot black hole would be so great that it would bend the paper around until the opposite end of the page was directly below the end bearing the dot. Then stick a pen into the paper, through the dot and in turn through the other side of the paper now under the dot. What you will have created is a wormhole. Imagine the dot as the entrance to the tunnel. The pen would be the tunnel itself and where the pen broke through would be a point in space that would take millions of light-years to reach using any conventional space craft. Now instead the trip could take only minutes or hours. No one knows for sure obviously since the existence of wormholes and black holes is purely in theory. Even if they do exist, humans would have to fly into
Below are the top articles rated and ranked by Helium members on:
by Wenbin Nah
Time Travel to the Past, Possibilities or Impossibility In our struggle to come to terms with our mental and physi... read more
by Richard Lowe
The second postulate of Einstein's Special Relativity Theory states that the speed of light stays the same for every ... read more
Time Travel: A Figment of the Imagination It is a tempting scenario: step onto a hi-tech captain's bridge straight... read more
by Allen Teal
Everybody travels in time. If you just do nothing for twenty-four hours, it will be tomorrow. You will have advance... read more
by Jack Josephy
Time travel would be an amazing achievement for humanity and has been a fantasy for science fiction for a long time. ... read more
View All Articles on:
Is time travel possible?
Add your voice
Know something about Is time travel possible??
We want to hear your view.
Write now!
Cast your vote!
Click for your side. Must be logged in.
Featured Partner
International Journalists' Network
The International Journalists' Network (IJNet) has partnered with Helium, giving you the chance to write for a cause....more
hide