time travel
Time Travel Theory – Is Time Travel Possible?
Is time travel possible? The problem with time travel is the ‘Time Travel paradox’ which goes something like this. Suppose a person travels back in time before birth and breaks a link in the time chain that led to the traveler’s birth. This problem has been commonly explored by asking the question ‘What if you killed your own grandmother before she first conceived?’ (Why the time travel paradox is never expressed in terms of killing your own mother, I am not sure, but it isn’t). If you kill your grandmother then you would not be born. If you were not born, then you could not travel into the past, in which case you would not kill your grandmother. If you did not travel back in time to kill your grandmother, you would be born causing you to again travel into the past to kill your grandmother…with me so far?
The laws of physics seem to allow the possibility of time travel to take place. Many physicists believe that there would have to be some kind of constraint that would make time travel impossible.
Albert Einstein thought that time travel was a very distinct possibility. His idea was that, theoretically, the closer we come to traveling at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second), the more time would appear to slow down for us in relation to someone who was not moving. He called the slowing of time due to motion time dilation.
Einstein came up with an example to show the effects of time dilation that he called the “twin paradox.” The paradox basically states that there are two twins. One twin travels to a distant location at the speed of light, while the other twin stays on earth. For the twin that traveled, time slowed down, while time stayed constant for the twin that remained on earth. Upon returning the twins were no longer the same age. The twin paradox and time dilation actually supports the theory of time travel into the future.
The twin paradox theory was actually proven in an experiment in 1971. This time experiment used two atomic clocks which started off reading the exact same time. One clock was placed on a jet that traveled around the world at 600 mph, while the other atomic clock stayed stationary. When the jet landed, the clock that had gone around the world was behind by a few billionths of a second.
So what about time travel into the past? The basic features of quantum theory actually allow for the possibility of time travel into the past and that the paradoxes raised by the equations of Einstein’s theory of relativity never come into play. The theory is that quantum objects split their existence into multiple component waves, which follows a distinct path through space-time. Quantum theory allows for time travel, because nothing stops the waves from traveling backwards in time. If you travel back into time using quantum mechanics, you would only see those events that were consistent with the world you left behind.
Time travel is an interesting theory to say the least. I leave you with this thought on time travel. If one day someone knocks on your door and says that they are a distant relative of yours, you might want to think twice before you close the door.
The Full Time RV’er and Travel Trailers
Travel trailers are one of the most popular RV’s going. They date back to the very early days of RV travel and have grown and blossomed with the industry. A RV trailer is a trailer that is hitched to the rear of the tow vehicle instead of a hitch in the bed of a pickup. Travel trailers range in size from a tiny 13 feet to 35 feet plus. They come in many forms from the compact folding tent trailer to the full size unit with multiple slide outs. Sleeping arrangements often include bunk beds to accommodate the entire family.
The folding tent trailer offers a lot of living space in a very compact form. These are usually canvas sided with a large pull out bed at each end. At the top end, they offer bathrooms with shower, hot water heaters and full galley for food preparation. The simpler versions are often sized small enough to pull behind a touring motorcycle.
The Hybrid travel trailer is a combination of the folding tent trailer and a standard hard sided trailer. A hybrid travel trailer has the folding pullout bed of a tent trailer on one or more ends. This adds greatly to the usable living space in the interior while still maintaining a compact package to tow.
Also found in this branch of the travel trailer family tree is the hard sided folding trailer. These compact trailers expand upward to become a full sized travel trailer when set up in camp.
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Time Travel Into the Past
We know that time travel into the future is possible. Stephen Hawking says, “We do not have the technology today to do this, but it is just a matter of engineering; we know it can be done.” In Time Travel in Einstein’s Universe: The Physical Possibilities of travel Through Time, physicist J. Richard Gott says “if we can accelerate protons to greater than 99.995 percent of the speed of light, we could also send off an astronaut at the same speed. It’s just a matter of cost.”
The idea of time travel into the past is a far more exciting prospect though. Who hasn’t wanted to travel back into the past? Some would like to return to the past permanently to live in a simpler time and escape forever the stress, crime, pollution, and other unpleasant aspects of 21st century living. Some would like to be time tourists and actually be present in the crowd to hear the Gettysburg Address delivered by President Lincoln himself, to watch the pyramids being built, or to witness firsthand any number of historical events. Some would like to go back to do or undo things that affected their own lives.
There was a young lady called Bright
Who could travel far faster than light;
She set off one day,
In a relative way,
And returned home the previous night.
A.H. R. Buller
A cute limerick, but is it possible? Yes, says, Stephen Hawking, if one can travel faster than the speed of light, one can travel back in time in the same manner that one can travel into the future-by riding a really fast spaceship. The problem, he says, is that while we can accelerate particles to 99.99 percent of the speed of light, we have as yet been unable to exceed the speed of light. Nevertheless, Hawking says, travel to the past may be possible through the use of wormholes. The idea of wormholes is not new. In 1935, Einstein and Rosen wrote a paper saying that the Theory of Relativity allowed for the existence of wormholes and much has been written about them since, but as yet we have no conclusive evidence that they actually exist.
Some scientists theorize that time travel into the past may be possible through the use of cosmic strings, which are thin strands of high-density material left over from the early universe. Like wormholes, we don’t know if cosmic strings exist, but Gott says, “If cosmic strings exist, you could travel in a spaceship [at 99.9999999999 percent of the speed of light] and outrun a light beam by taking the shorter of two paths around a cosmic string. The door to time travel to the past begins to crack open.”
Doubts that travel into the past might become possible in the future are rooted not so much in terms of physics and technology, but in terms of intuition and what are perceived to be the use of logic or common sense. For example, if a man were to travel back in time and kill his grandfather before his grandfather ever had any children, then he never would have existed himself and therefore could have never traveled back into time. Furthermore, if time travel to the past becomes a reality at some point in the future, why has there never been any record of people from the future showing up in all of recorded history?
There are many similar questions and many possible answers, some simple and some very complicated. Many people are convinced that time travelers from the future have made trips into the past. There are two types of evidence. The first is artifacts left behind by time travelers. One example is a watch/ring found in December 2008 in a Chinese tomb that had been sealed for 400 years. The second type of evidence is photographs in which there are people who appear to be from another era. An example is the unknown woman in the 1928 Charlie Chaplin movie, “The Circus.” She is walking along in a background shot speaking into what appears to be a communications device. She is alone, and appears to be carrying on a conversation. These and similar examples can be found on the internet as well the opinions of people seeking to debunk the evidence. Who knows?
The only thing certain about time travel into the past is that people will always dream of it and always be fascinated by it.