A Problem With Time Travel

[Epitome]

I think the bigger issue is - how to calculate where in the time you want to travel so that you don't fall into an ocean or travel to the outer space?

Because Time Travel is usually just changing 02.09.09 to 06.06.06. And let's not forget that in 3 months, Earth changes its position in the universe. So if you are traveling from XYZ on one day to XYZ on the other day, it's the same point, but if the planet itself moved... You either end up in a completely different country, outside of Earth's orbit or inside of the planet itself.

THIS! is the true problem.

hmm so for effective time travel one woul dhav eto be able to generate a wormhole of known distance and time distortion and calculate to a very sharp degree where te earth will be when you are arriving... hard

as is my understanding what you are saying is correct but the wormhole method is only necessary for traveling back in time. Forward time travel can be achieved through relativistic effects, meaning: go really fast. according to relativity if your speed begins to approach the speed of light, time will pas more slowly for you then for others.

True if you are in a space shio and say spend a bunch of time near the periphert of a black hoel before teh event horizon then go back to earth and they will have aged faster than you... but what we are saying is that if you were on teh surface of teh earth and invented say a localised bubble where time didnt occur when you left this bubble you would be in deep space because the earth would not be in the same position that you had remained a non-event mass with a quantum probability of zero in. so you could either generate a wormhoel to take you thriugh time and space to a point where the earth will be , or you could only exit your bubble when the earth was in that spot. Ie if you went in on 3/3/03 you couldnt come out again till 3/3/04 where the planet would have completed a full rotation adn be back where your feet will touch grond.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Alright as we all know there are 4 dimensions: Length width hieght and time. The idea of time travel is the ability to manipulate the flow of time, so that you could pause a moment, relive past moments, or expierience things yet to happen(assuming the flow isnt altered).

Now my question here is about the time travel in movies/games. in most forms of media, people can 'pause' time, alowing them to do things while others are completely frozen. This brings me to my question: If one where to completely stop time as stated, wouldn't they not be able to see anything while it is stopped? Since there would be no light reflecting of objects, because the light has stopped also, then there would be no light traveling to your eye and being interpreted by your brain. Therefor, when time was paused everything would be pitch dark. Right?

Same problem happens with invisibility, light can't reach the eye if it's transparent.

The way to override it is that you stop mass but not energy, as otherwise your body would impact on the nearest object at 30 km/s as the Earth wouldn't have control over your physical momentum. Which works within Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. (although borks over the Photon-Wave effect)

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Mass of Fist * Speed of Fist/0 = Mass of Fist * Infinity = Infinity

So, would they like, explode, or something? Someone tell me if my Physics is wrong.

Common Finite problem with Infinity.

At the point of impact, you have to either
a) Allow your fist to operate on them at finite speed, which then turns your fist into a superpowerful but superweak blade.
b) Allow them to keep frozen. In which case your hand shatters as they can't move and the entire force is reflected back into you.
c) Return your fist to real time, which then disconnects it from your body and applies the damage to it from your wrist.
d) Return your body to real time, which then shatters your body from the stored kinetic energy.

Either way, not great. Physics works on the standard model which doesn't allow for infinity as it relies on Mathematics, which takes it as an algebraic function rather than a number.

Generally speaking, you can never apply Finite to Infinite without preposterous results.

The Book explains it better

 

[Macflash]

ok. First off, there really arent 4 dimensions. We understand 3 spacial dimensions and depending on what theories you believe you can say that there are as many time dimensions as spacial dimensions, or that time is really space-time which can be bent by an objects mass/speed, or that time is a spacial dimension which is part of up to around 13 dimensions.

I'm going to go with Einstein and his good ol' theories for now and say, that there is no way to stop time, other than going at the speed of light. which would be impossible in einsteinian physics because it would require an infinite amount of energy. If you could somehow accelerate yourself to near lightspeed you could slow down the passage of time for yourself. Lets say some device made your body vibrate at some fraction of the speed of light, this would slow down time for you, actually making everything else seem to speed up. and as you travel faster time slows down equally so that light appears to be moving at the same speed to you, so even if you got very close to somehow stopping time you would still see light moving.

on the whole traveling through time issue it MAY be possible at a quantum level, just like teleporting, but it would not really be possible on a large scale. and if you did successfully travel through time (like *poof* you're in the 1800's or something), that would really eff things up. theres no way to really know.

 

[TheGreatCoolEnergy]

Alright as we all know there are 4 dimensions: Length width hieght and time. The idea of time travel is the ability to manipulate the flow of time, so that you could pause a moment, relive past moments, or expierience things yet to happen(assuming the flow isnt altered).

Now my question here is about the time travel in movies/games. in most forms of media, people can 'pause' time, alowing them to do things while others are completely frozen. This brings me to my question: If one where to completely stop time as stated, wouldn't they not be able to see anything while it is stopped? Since there would be no light reflecting of objects, because the light has stopped also, then there would be no light traveling to your eye and being interpreted by your brain. Therefor, when time was paused everything would be pitch dark. Right?

Time as a fourth dimension is a "relativity theory" view. This differs from classical physics where time is seen as a separate dimension that flows at an even rate, independent of physics. Relativity theory also states that the faster an object goes toward the speed of light, the further it goes through time - time (relatively) slows down for that object. Say you were twenty years old and got into a spaceship, and travelled for five years at nearly the speed of light. When you then returned to earth, you may find that the population has actually aged 50 years. But it only would have felt like five years to you while you were inside your spaceship and you would only be 25. Now if you could travel AT the speed of light, what happens to time then? Does it go infinitely fast, relative to you? Does this mean that you are then "frozen"? Since speed is also relative to different objects (you may be walking at 5 miles an hour but the earth is also rotating which is another movement relative to the earth's axis, and also orbiting the Sun which is a movement relative to the Sun, the the solar system is also drifting in the Milky Way etc...), if there is a speed difference of 1 x the speed of light between you and everyone else, then who is to say which object is moving at the speed of light and which is not? What is the reference point for the relative speed? Maybe if the reference point is also moving at your speed, is it therefore possible that the world will freeze and you will not? You may wish to study relativity theory a bit more.

Hmmm alright. And ya maybe just a little bit more

 

[TheGreatCoolEnergy]

Time machine's are a waste of urgh time in theory you could only go back as far as when the time machine was made. Since it did not exist before it was made how could you go beyond that it would simply vanish.

I think that a machine could manipulate time would be removed from the flow of time, similar to how if you want to dig a new channal for a river you dont throw your shovel into the stream. And even if your theory is correct, My question asked if we coulkd PAUSE time not move backwards

 

[TheGreatCoolEnergy]

I think the bigger issue is - how to calculate where in the time you want to travel so that you don't fall into an ocean or travel to the outer space?

Because Time Travel is usually just changing 02.09.09 to 06.06.06. And let's not forget that in 3 months, Earth changes its position in the universe. So if you are traveling from XYZ on one day to XYZ on the other day, it's the same point, but if the planet itself moved... You either end up in a completely different country, outside of Earth's orbit or inside of the planet itself.

THIS! is the true problem.

On the same note, wouldnt programning a generation ship to travel to another solar system be a real mathimatical feat, because after the hundreds/thousands of years of traveling the solar system would have moved, causeing the ship to have to reroute, adding even more time onto an already long voyage?

 

[Abedeus]

I think the bigger issue is - how to calculate where in the time you want to travel so that you don't fall into an ocean or travel to the outer space?

Because Time Travel is usually just changing 02.09.09 to 06.06.06. And let's not forget that in 3 months, Earth changes its position in the universe. So if you are traveling from XYZ on one day to XYZ on the other day, it's the same point, but if the planet itself moved... You either end up in a completely different country, outside of Earth's orbit or inside of the planet itself.

THIS! is the true problem.

On the same note, wouldnt programning a generation ship to travel to another solar system be a real mathimatical feat, because after the hundreds/thousands of years of traveling the solar system would have moved, causeing the ship to have to reroute, adding even more time onto an already long voyage?

Not to mention, we don't even know how the universe ITSELF moves - does it shrink, expand? How would the whole galaxies themselves move?!

So time travel is almost impossible.