TIME TRAVEL

AUTHOR - Sai Thaneeshkaa Sivakumar

INTRODUCTION:

Starting from H.G Well’s bestselling book, “Time Machine” to J.K Rowling’s spell-binding book, “The Prisoner of Azkaban” is predominantly based on the topic that has left children and adults alike befuddled with an irresistible urge to explore the vast fields of STEM, Time travel. Time travel, as the word says is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Scientists have always debated for the existence and possibility of time travel, including Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, to Stephen Hawking.They have their own opinion about the existence of time machines and time travel.Seeing the high human curiosity about time machines and time travel itself, many scientists have researched time travel in recent years.There are at least 20 scientific journals that discuss time machines each year. Isaac Newton mentioned that Time and Distance are immutable dimensions and thus can neither slow down nor speed up. Through his worldwide theory of relativity, Albert Einstein opened up the possibility of Time Travel. In his own words, Albert Einstein said “When you sit with a nice girl, two hours feels like two minutes. But when you touch a sizzling, hot pan for two minutes, it feels like two hours.” What Einstein is trying to explain here is that time is not constant at all places and therefore bending time is possible. Stephen Hawking felt that everything is possible unless proved impossible. According to Stephen Hawking, Time Travel is something time travel is moving forward or backward to a different point in time , similar to moving through space.

HISTORY OF TIME TRAVEL:

There are ample amounts of ancient myths that depict people travelling forward in time. In Hindu Mythology, the Vishnu Purana mentions the story of King Raivata Kakudmi, who travels to heaven to meet the creator Brahma and is surprised to learn when he returns to Earth that many ages have passed. The Japanese story Urashimo Taro recounts the tale of Urashima-no-ko ,who visits an undersea palace. After three days, he returns home to his village and finds himself 300 years in the future, where he has been forgotten, his house is in ruins, and his family has died. The earliest work about backwards time travel is uncertain. The Chinese novel Supplement to the Journey to the West (c. 1640) by Dong Yue features magical mirrors and jade gateways that connect various points in time. The protagonist Sun Wukong travels back in time to the "World of the Ancients" (Qin Dynasty) to retrieve a magical bell and then travels forward to the "World of the Future" (Song Dynasty) to find an emperor who has been exiled in time. However, the time travel takes place inside an illusory dream world created by the villain to entrap and distract him. Samuel Madden's Memoirs of the Twentieth Century (1733) is a series of letters from British ambassadors in 1997 and 1998 to diplomats in the past, conveying the political and religious conditions of the future. Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843) has early depictions of mystical time travel in both directions, as the protagonist, Ebenezer Scrooge, is transported to Christmases past and future. One of the first stories to feature time travel by means of a machine is "The Clock that Went Backward" by Edward Page Mitchell,which appeared in the New York Sun in 1881. “The Time Machine” is a science fiction novel written by H.G. Wells and published in 1895. The book was one of the first science fiction novels ever to be published and is largely credited with popularizing the concept of time travel by usage of a vehicle or a “time machine”

THEORETICAL PHYSICS AND TIME TRAVEL:

There have been many theories that prove that time travel is possible. Albert Einstein taught the three dimensions of space related to the dimension of time, where time is the fourth dimension. He called it the space-time system, and eventually this is the model of the universe that we use today. Yet, Einstein also thought that it was possible to bend space-time, creating a single passage between two different distances. This phenomenon is called a wormhole, which is visualized as two tunnels with two doors, each representing a certain time space. Wormholes may naturally exist in space. This theory explained the energy pipe that theoretically extends throughout the universe which is continuously expanding. Some scientists predict that this tiny space has survived since the world began to exist, containing an enormous mass. Thus, they can warp space-time around it. Scientists believe that if two cosmic strings meet or come close together, they can warp space-time. Since the resulting curvature will be very large, it can cause time travel. A Tipler cylinder, also called a Tipler time machine, is a hypothetical object theorized to be a potential mode of time travel—although results have shown that a Tipler cylinder could only allow time travel if its length were infinite or with the existence of negative energy. Though Time Travel sounds cool when we read about it, we need enourmous amount of energy in order to achieve it as we have to travel faster than time.

PROOF OF TIME TRAVEL:

While the existence of time travel is still being debated, there are some evidences of time travel that will blow our mind.

1. Astronaut sculpture on an Old Church:

A well-known proof of Time Travel is the sculpture of a man wearing tubes and boots is an accurate version of an Astronaut. Since space travel did not exist between 1600 and 1800, it is proof that one of the people building the church was from the future, and created this sculpture. This has been carved in 16th century Spanish cathedral in Salamanca.

2. The “Made in Switzerland” watch found in the coffin is 400 years old. A team of Chinese archaeologists found the coffin at Si Qong’s cemetery in December 2008. The coffin is expected to be 400 years old. When the chest was unloaded, the team accidentally found a small metal which turned out to be a watch. There are long and short hands, and numbers that show the time.Interestingly, on the back of the watch is the words “Swiss”. In fact, watches were only invented in 1868.

3.The book Baron Trump’s Marvelous Underground Journey and The Last President written by Ingersoll Lockwood has invoked a sense of curiosity among the society and has lead to the emergence of a theory that Donald Trump and his son Baron Trump are Time Travellers! Apart from having the same name, both of them also have similar postures and faces. In the front page of the book, a young Baron Trump is seen wearing 18th century clothing and accompanied by a dog named Bulger. Not only that, Baron Trump’s trip was also accompanied by a mentor named Don. Indeed, we cannot immediately assume that the Don in this book is Donald Trump. This book tells about a wealthy businessman who wants to become a president. However, no one thought that he would be elected and get the position. He lives on Fifth Avenue in the United States. Donald Trump himself has a building called Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. As we know, Donald Trump is a rich businessman whose victory was never predicted by the people of the world.

There have been countless proof of Time Travel. These include a mummy wearing boots that are knee-high, the soles are leather, and the front shield has a bright red strip stitching”, something that is very similar to Adidas shoes, A woman holding a cell-phone in Charlie Chaplin’s film “Circus”, The “Mr. Pynchon and The Settling of Springfield” Painting in 1937 showing a tribal man holding a cell phone, A person using flashlight camera phone at Mike Tyson’s boxing match in 1995, Noah claiming that he had come from the future and was willing to endanger himself in order to warn people that time machines do exist.

PARADOX:

1. Grandfather Paradox:- This is one of the most popular paradox of all time. For example let us take that you murdered your grandfather before your father or mother was born or before your grandfather met your grandmother. Therefore, your father or mother was never born, and the effect is that you will never be born and will never travel back in time to kill your grandfather. Then, if you never travel back in time to kill your grandfather, your grandfather is alive, your father or mother is born and you will be born too. Then, you go back to the past, to kill your grandfather. This paradox creates a ‘timeline loop’.

2. Predestination Paradox:- This paradox tries to explain that everything in this world is predestined or cannot be changed. A time traveler travels in time to the past to change an event, but his efforts make him return to the past to change the event. This means that just by being able to travel back in time, we cannot save someone from being assassinated, or kill someone or prevent wars,etc.

3. Polchinski’s Paradox:- American theoretical physicist Joseph Polchinski proposed a time paradox scenario in which a billiard ball enters a wormhole, and emerges out the other end in the past just in time to collide with its younger version and stop it going into the wormhole in the first place.

4. Butterfly Paradox:- The consequences of time travel and actions taken while in the past can have large-scale effects in the future. For example let us assume that you are a fan of J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter Series. So you go back in time to visit her and for some reason you stop her from writing the series. As a result, the Harry Potter series was never published and all the things that have been created as an inspiration from the Harry Potter series goes into non-existence.

CONCLUSION:

Astronauts that spent about a year on the international space station are now living in the future compared to us. Even though it’s just 13 milliseconds in the future, they proof that time travel is possible.Time Travel is considered possible in theoretical physics. Hopefully with the advancement in technology, Time Travel is possible in the future.