• Question: Is time travel possible?

    Asked by anon-224667 to Simon, Selen, Paul, Nawapat, Natalie, Katy on 14 Nov 2019. This question was also asked by anon-224639.
    • Photo: Paul Laurance-Young

      Paul Laurance-Young answered on 14 Nov 2019:

      Actually yes! The astronauts on the ISS are doing it right now – because they move so fast orbiting the Earth, there is an effect called time dilation, meaning time for them moves at a different speed to time for you. I’m sure a physicist could explain this much better!
      If you mean can we go back to the age of dinosaurs – sadly no, because I want a Stegosaurus.

    • Photo: Nawapat Kaweeyanun

      Nawapat Kaweeyanun answered on 17 Nov 2019:

      As far as we know, time travel can happen only if we can travel at a speed faster than light, which should not be possible under our latest physics (Einstein’s general relativity). But we also know that Einstein’s theory is not perfect and one day we will have a new theory for physics. Time travel may very well be possible then!

      Paul’s answer mentions time dilation. Time dilation is not the same thing as time travel as you cannot go back into the past. However, time dilation can bring you into the future! If you board a very fast spaceship that travels for a long time, the time on your spaceship will flow slower than the time on Earth! So if you took a trip around our galaxy, you will come back to a future Earth but you cannot return to the past.

    • Photo: Katy Bruce

      Katy Bruce answered on 18 Nov 2019:

      I can’t beat the physicist on this one! My answer would be that if you’re speaking to someone on the phone or via Skype in Australia, that could loosely be regarded as time travel!

Comments