Kirsten Duane M.

Bukuhan
Helium - iv

Astrophysics Project
Reaction paper
Time travel is no longer regarded as strictly science fiction. For years the concept of time
travel has been the topic of science fiction novels and movies, and has been pondered by great
scientists throughout history. Einstein’s theories of general and special relativity can be used to
actually prove that time travel is possible. Government research experiments have yielded
experimental data that conclusively illustrate that fast moving aircraft have traveled into the
future. This phenomenon is due to the principal of time dilation, which states that bodies moving
at high velocities experience a time that ticks slower than the time measured at zero velocity.3
Not as much time elapses for a moving body as does for everything else. Phenomena known as
wormholes and closed time like curves are possible means of time travel into the future and the
past.4 Traveling into the past is a task which is much more difficult than traveling into the future.
This feat has not yet been accomplished -to our knowledge- and its theory involves complicated
scenarios of tears in four dimensional space-time, and traveling near the speed of light. Obstacles
which prevent our hubris attempts to cheat time include our inability to move even close to the
speed of light, and finding a source of energy as powerful as an exploding star. Simply because
the proposal of time travel is backed by scientific theory, is no reason to expect that it is easily
achievable. Numerous arguments are proposed that that prevent time travel into the past. Both
common sense and scientific fact can be used to paint scenarios that become serious obstacles.
Not to fear, we have all the time in the world to overcome these minor limitations.

Imagine if you will, that you are one of the people still alive today that was born prior to
1903, when the first airplane took flight. When you were young the idea of flying would
probably have been quite exciting. Some scientists believe that we may presently be living
through an identical scenario. The thing that would be so exciting however, would not be flight,
but time travel. Leading scientists believe that our children will live to once again see the
impossible become routine. Professor Michio Kaku of the university of New York believes that
space flight may one day unlock the secret of time itself. This will require the development of
spacecraft that can travel at speeds on the order of two hundred million meters per second, that’s
about four hundred and fifty million miles per hour. Craft traveling at this speed will take us near
the speed of light, where time actually slows down. This is what’s known as time dilation.
Einstein’s theories predict that the faster a spacecraft moves the slower time ticks inside of it.
Imagine that a rocket ship takes off from earth and approaches the speed of light. If we were to
watch it from earth with a very powerful telescope as it traveled away from us, we would see
everyone inside the ship as being frozen in time. To us their time would slow down, but to them
nothing would change! This has been measured in the laboratory and on location using atomic
clocks, aircraft, satellites and rockets. It is proven that time slows down the faster you move. In
1975 Professor Carol Allie of the University of Maryland tested Einstein’s theory using two
synchronized atomic clocks. One clock was loaded on a plane and flown for several hours, while
the other clock remained on the ground at the air base. Upon return, the clock on board the plane
was found to be ever so slightly slower that the one on the ground. This was not due to
experimental error, and has been repeated numerous times with the same result. This difference
in time is even more pronounced in satellites such as the space station. This is because these
objects are traveling at speeds much faster and for much longer periods than possible in an
airplane. The faster an object moves, the more time is distorted.

Time travel is one of the things we humans dream of achieving. There are theories that
are trying to prove that time travel is possible, however, time travel still seems to be impossible
even with the advanced technology mankind has nowadays. Even with our advanced technology,
we cannot invent or make something that would make time travel possible. They say that
travelling faster than the speed of light allows us to travel back in time; this is also mentioned in
Einstein's famous "Special Theory of Relativity". There are theories about particles that can
travel faster than the speed of light, which are called tachyons, but these particles are still just
hypothetical and still not created or found.

Time travel is such an intriguing subject matter. It is possible that someone could have
traveled back in time, without us knowing, and changed what had happened in the past for his or
her or their personal interests. For example, some Americans could have transported from the
future the nuclear technology so that they could win the World War 2. I know it is ridiculous to
think of it, but it can be possible.

In my opinion, time travel wouldn't do much good in this world. The use of it could
destroy the balance of space and time, and unwanted paradoxes could occur. I think it is better to
leave time travel alone and focus on more important fields like the renewable and non-renewable
sources of energy. This way we can preserve the world we live in and enjoy our lives more here
on earth.