Time Travel In Einstein’s Universe
The Physical Possibilities of Travel Through Time
The Physical Possibilities of Travel Through Time
J. Richard Gott
One day going through the book store I came across this interesting book. The title caught my eye because I have always wondered about time travel. I must admit it was more from the philosophical then the scientific. This book delves into the ideas of physics by use of pop culture with discussions of Star Trek, and the movies Back To The Future and of course H.G. Wells The Time Machine. At times this book was a delight to read as well as difficult for the non scientific person such as myself. The talk of cosmic strings, curved space time and worm holes along with Einstein, special relativity and curved space has lost me on more then one occasion
There are discussions of the possibilities of time travel to the future. An example that he uses is one of Einstein theories, in which you would get on a space ship. Go to a star about 500 light years away and then return traveling both ways at 99.95% of the speed of light. Upon return earth will be 1,000 years older but you will only be 10 years old. Such speed has been shown to be possible with the use of particle accelerators. We can be fairly certain that time travel from the near future still is just a theory because of the fact as Steven Hawking has noted we are not being run over by tourist from the future. They would only be able to travel back to the point where the machine had been invented
Several theories are presented as to the probability of time travel to the past through the use of Cosmic String Loops and Black Holes. There is also the chance that you might be able to take advantage of a Wormhole. Warpdrive, which is the altering of space to travel among stars at speeds faster then the speed of light as seen on Star Trek. This theory has been shown to work by Miguel Alcubierre by the use of general relativity.
At this point all that has been presented in the book is for the most part is nothing more then theory. As they work to push physics to the extreme never taking for granted that the imposable may not be possible.
One day going through the book store I came across this interesting book. The title caught my eye because I have always wondered about time travel. I must admit it was more from the philosophical then the scientific. This book delves into the ideas of physics by use of pop culture with discussions of Star Trek, and the movies Back To The Future and of course H.G. Wells The Time Machine. At times this book was a delight to read as well as difficult for the non scientific person such as myself. The talk of cosmic strings, curved space time and worm holes along with Einstein, special relativity and curved space has lost me on more then one occasion
There are discussions of the possibilities of time travel to the future. An example that he uses is one of Einstein theories, in which you would get on a space ship. Go to a star about 500 light years away and then return traveling both ways at 99.95% of the speed of light. Upon return earth will be 1,000 years older but you will only be 10 years old. Such speed has been shown to be possible with the use of particle accelerators. We can be fairly certain that time travel from the near future still is just a theory because of the fact as Steven Hawking has noted we are not being run over by tourist from the future. They would only be able to travel back to the point where the machine had been invented
Several theories are presented as to the probability of time travel to the past through the use of Cosmic String Loops and Black Holes. There is also the chance that you might be able to take advantage of a Wormhole. Warpdrive, which is the altering of space to travel among stars at speeds faster then the speed of light as seen on Star Trek. This theory has been shown to work by Miguel Alcubierre by the use of general relativity.
At this point all that has been presented in the book is for the most part is nothing more then theory. As they work to push physics to the extreme never taking for granted that the imposable may not be possible.
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