• Question: Is time travel possible?

    Asked by St Cyres Wales to Ceri, Marikka, Matt, Rob, Sally on 14 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by adamthescientist.
    • Photo: Sally Cutler

      Sally Cutler answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      In a way this has been done with supersonic jets like concorde that let you arrive in the USA at a time pretty well before you left using UK time. Other than this, not yet, but never say never!

    • Photo: Ceri Dare

      Ceri Dare answered on 15 Nov 2014:

      Not at the moment. I don’t know enough about physics to know if it will ever be possible.

    • Photo: Robert Hampson

      Robert Hampson answered on 18 Nov 2014:

      Yes and No.

      Time is changeable depending on your speed. If an object goes really fast, time appears to slow down for that object. This is due to relativity (one of Einstein’s great theories).

      There are also some subatomic particles which for some reason seem to travel backwards through time.

      However, I do not think it will ever be possible to create a time machine to take a living human being backwards through time. (I suppose you could go forwards by traveling really fast in a circle and slowing down your own time while everything else proceeds at a normal rate, however, you couldn’t get back to your own time again)

Comments