Einstein's theories demand that one needs to travel at the speed of light to go to the future and more than the speed of light to go to the past. Then the question is 'travel to where'? So far the answer is through space. So, in order to go to the future even before it happens at the Time's own pace on earth, we need to travel through space at the speed of light. Having said that do you see that it is conflicting the 4th characteristic of a dimension!? If Time is a true dimension , then moving in time's direction should not require or impact the position of an object in it's 3 dimensional space.
This is the first stop sign for us to give a second thought when we are talking about Time Travel. What Einstein was referring to was not 'Absolute time' but 'Relative time'. Why is it relative? Simple because he was comparing two clocks! As we saw in our previous posts, he is comparing the one on earth with the one on the space craft. Moreover, he was the one who gave us the definition of time as 'Time is nothing but what is shown or measured in a clock'!
Let's go with the concept of relative time. As pointed out by J. Richard Gott in his book 'Time Travel in Einstein's Universe', the Russian cosmonaut Sergei Avdeyev traveled over the speed of 17000 miles/hour on a space craft for, so far, the longest period of 748 days. When he returned to the earth, he was 1/50th second traveled into the future. In other words, his clock was running 50 secs slower than the clock on earth!
This is the second stop sign to give a second though before we claim that he has traveled into his future! Did he really travel into his future? Before answering, we need to clarify a point here! As long as we are talking about relative time, we cannot just talk about future because it's out of the context of the person who travels through space. What we are talking about is nothing but 'Relative Future'! Yes, because it's not the same future what the astronaut would have encountered if he stayed on earth! Let's say for example, if he stayed on earth, he might have got married during that period. The fact is that once he leaves the earth, Since he was not part of the present on earth, when he will return to the earth he will not be part of his future but his relative future.
Even if we consider the concept of relative future. There are few incomplete or illogical claims. What is the truth? Did he remain really younger in terms of his age and real life? Or did his clock on the space craft just slow down and give the illusion, like how a clock slows down when its battery goes down?! To answer this, astronaut has to travel at higher speeds for longer period because it'll be accurate only when the time dilation or difference is in terms of years not hours or days.
Proving the 'Time dilation' does not actually prove the 'Time travel' because of the following problems with this approach.
1. The future, which Astronaut sees, is not necessarily the same as what he might have seen if he would have stayed on the earth.
2. He didn't travel through the series of incidents that might have happened in his life on earth rather he skipped all of those incidents and ended up in a future which is out of his context!
3. He cannot go back to either his past or relative past, if any because he cannot change what happened on earth.
Here is how I conclude my hypothesis on Time:
1. Though 'Time' can be used as an attribute to refer a position of an object, it is NOT a true dimension as it doesn't satisfy all the characteristics of a dimension.
2. One cannot see his future using Time Travel because as soon as he leaves the earth he is absent on earth. Hence what he will be seeing is the future of the earth without his presence.
3. According to quantum theory, the river of time forks into two separate rivers. By going back in time and altering the past, we are traveling into someone else's past in some other universe where we don't belong to by saving, for example, Abraham Lincoln from being assassinated at the Ford Theater, but our Lincoln is still dead in our universe.
4. There is no theory, so far, that has assured or formed to confirm that there will definitely be Abraham Lincoln in the parallel universe, just like the one in our universe! It is just the hypothetical understanding that when we say parallel universe, it's taken for granted as a duplicate of the other. It may or may not be true! Because of the enormous amount of work done by theoretical physicists within the last five years or so, Hawking has since changed his mind, and now believes that time travel is possible (although not necessarily practical). It's not possible to travel to the Past as Time always travels in one direction unless Time has parallel tracks running around the black holes as a whirl pool.
Finally, what has been proved as Time Travel, so far, is nothing but traveling into one's 'Relative future' where the traveler can't see his own future but the relative future of the earth, simply Einstein's 'Time dilation'. The truth is that Time is the only way of preventing everything from happening all at once and allowing to happen only once!
Monday, August 30, 2010
9. Is Time truly a 4th dimension of an object?
This is the question that has been swirling around in my mind ever since my interest turned towards to 'Time'. I started to study Einstein's special and general theories of relativity and other concepts in order to find the answer for my question.
However, even after studying all these theories, still, personally I feel that 'Time is not truly the 4th dimension'! What all I found was that Clock slows down or it may even stop when we travel at the speed of light. All the rest of the concepts that were developed until today are completely based on and prove only the concept called 'Time dilation'.
What if the basic theory itself is wrong? What if Time is not even a true 4th dimension? In order to find the answers, let's start with the basics of 'Dimensions'.What is a dimension? We all know that all the objects in this universe is made up in 3 dimensions. Also, at least till now, we don't know if at all there are more dimensions to it! Anyway that's not our interest and let's stick to our topic. Yes, they are 1st, 2nd & 3rd dimensions but how do we define a dimension? or In other words, what are their key characteristics?
I would say,
1. It is the magnitude of an object in a particular direction.
2. It should be applicable to all the objects in this universe.
3. If we take a dimension, then we should be able to move forward or backward in its direction.
and not but not least,
4. The variation of that dimension should not impact its lower dimensions.
Let's consider the 'space' attribute of a 'Cube' for example. We all know that it's an object that occupies three dimensional space. Now let's validate one of it's position in space with the above definitions one by one.
1. Yes, height is a magnitude of a cube.
2. Yes, it's applicable to all the objects in this universe (considering a fact that even a two dimensional object has zero or close to zero magnitude of height).
3. Yes, we can move the cube up and down in the direction of its height.
4. Yes, moving in the direction of height does not impact or require any change in the cube's length or width.
Now, consider Time coordinates for the same cube. We all know that as a 4th dimension, time cuts through all the objects in this universe. Now, let's validate..
1. Yes, time is a magnitude of a cube.
2. Yes, it's applicable to all the objects in this universe (even a stand still stone has time attached to it).
3. Yes, according to relativity theories, we can move forward (to the future) and backward (to the past).
but how about the last one? Can we go to the future and to the past without moving in space?
4. The answer is partially 'yes'. That's because time flows only in one direction all the time. Every bit of a second, we move forward in time through the present. We can't skip the present and jump to the future while staying on earth. Moreover, we cannot move backward in time or travel to the past because time doesn't run backward.
Even the clock on space craft that moves at the speed of light will not run backward. It still runs forward! This ensures that time is uncontrollable and beyond our scope of ability to manipulate. In order to be a dimension of an object, a magnitude should be an attribute of the object and it defines the object itself. Time does NOT fall under this category. It is an old man river and it just flows in its direction whether you measure it or not. For sake of argument, if Time is considered as 4th dimension, then it shouldn't be possible to apply or tag a specific time on top of the 2 dimensional object! That's because 3rd dimension cannot rest on 1st dimension.
Let's say X- 1st dimension, Y-2nd dimension, Z-3rd dimension and T(Time)- 4th dimension are the four dimensions.
1. Y cannot be applied to zero dimensional object, say a dot. Even if it is applied, 'dot' becomes 'line' and line is a valid one dimensional object. So, Y can be transformed or broken down into it's lower dimension, that is X.
2. Z cannot be applied to X, if it happens, they Z should be Y. Still, even if it happens, there is no harm because the one dimensional 'line' becomes a two dimensional 'square'. So, it's still a valid two dimensional object.
3. What's about T? Can T be applied to a 2 dimensional object? Even if it is applied, will the two dimensional square become three dimensional cube? A time tagged line can never become a square!
4. Also, a time can be tagged into a specific event! Though an event can be broken down into individual moving frames of an object, the final frame of a motion can be considered as a completed event and it can be referred or tagged to that specific point of time of occurrence.
Time can be given a 'Dimensional' designation only in the space-time matrix! In reality, it is just another attribute to refer an object or event for our convenience and it doesn't define the object itself. Why are we convenient or why do we need Time? Simple because we are also bound to Time. Time is not truly a 4th dimension of objects, it is just another attribute or tag that is stuck on top of any object or event for our convenience and needs!
However, even after studying all these theories, still, personally I feel that 'Time is not truly the 4th dimension'! What all I found was that Clock slows down or it may even stop when we travel at the speed of light. All the rest of the concepts that were developed until today are completely based on and prove only the concept called 'Time dilation'.
What if the basic theory itself is wrong? What if Time is not even a true 4th dimension? In order to find the answers, let's start with the basics of 'Dimensions'.What is a dimension? We all know that all the objects in this universe is made up in 3 dimensions. Also, at least till now, we don't know if at all there are more dimensions to it! Anyway that's not our interest and let's stick to our topic. Yes, they are 1st, 2nd & 3rd dimensions but how do we define a dimension? or In other words, what are their key characteristics?
I would say,
1. It is the magnitude of an object in a particular direction.
2. It should be applicable to all the objects in this universe.
3. If we take a dimension, then we should be able to move forward or backward in its direction.
and not but not least,
4. The variation of that dimension should not impact its lower dimensions.
Let's consider the 'space' attribute of a 'Cube' for example. We all know that it's an object that occupies three dimensional space. Now let's validate one of it's position in space with the above definitions one by one.
1. Yes, height is a magnitude of a cube.
2. Yes, it's applicable to all the objects in this universe (considering a fact that even a two dimensional object has zero or close to zero magnitude of height).
3. Yes, we can move the cube up and down in the direction of its height.
4. Yes, moving in the direction of height does not impact or require any change in the cube's length or width.
Now, consider Time coordinates for the same cube. We all know that as a 4th dimension, time cuts through all the objects in this universe. Now, let's validate..
1. Yes, time is a magnitude of a cube.
2. Yes, it's applicable to all the objects in this universe (even a stand still stone has time attached to it).
3. Yes, according to relativity theories, we can move forward (to the future) and backward (to the past).
but how about the last one? Can we go to the future and to the past without moving in space?
4. The answer is partially 'yes'. That's because time flows only in one direction all the time. Every bit of a second, we move forward in time through the present. We can't skip the present and jump to the future while staying on earth. Moreover, we cannot move backward in time or travel to the past because time doesn't run backward.
Even the clock on space craft that moves at the speed of light will not run backward. It still runs forward! This ensures that time is uncontrollable and beyond our scope of ability to manipulate. In order to be a dimension of an object, a magnitude should be an attribute of the object and it defines the object itself. Time does NOT fall under this category. It is an old man river and it just flows in its direction whether you measure it or not. For sake of argument, if Time is considered as 4th dimension, then it shouldn't be possible to apply or tag a specific time on top of the 2 dimensional object! That's because 3rd dimension cannot rest on 1st dimension.
Let's say X- 1st dimension, Y-2nd dimension, Z-3rd dimension and T(Time)- 4th dimension are the four dimensions.
1. Y cannot be applied to zero dimensional object, say a dot. Even if it is applied, 'dot' becomes 'line' and line is a valid one dimensional object. So, Y can be transformed or broken down into it's lower dimension, that is X.
2. Z cannot be applied to X, if it happens, they Z should be Y. Still, even if it happens, there is no harm because the one dimensional 'line' becomes a two dimensional 'square'. So, it's still a valid two dimensional object.
3. What's about T? Can T be applied to a 2 dimensional object? Even if it is applied, will the two dimensional square become three dimensional cube? A time tagged line can never become a square!
4. Also, a time can be tagged into a specific event! Though an event can be broken down into individual moving frames of an object, the final frame of a motion can be considered as a completed event and it can be referred or tagged to that specific point of time of occurrence.
Time can be given a 'Dimensional' designation only in the space-time matrix! In reality, it is just another attribute to refer an object or event for our convenience and it doesn't define the object itself. Why are we convenient or why do we need Time? Simple because we are also bound to Time. Time is not truly a 4th dimension of objects, it is just another attribute or tag that is stuck on top of any object or event for our convenience and needs!
8. Whirl pool of Time & Universe
From previous posts, lets continue with our analysis to find how traveling to the past could be possible. Consider the train example that we had seen in my previous post. You are traveling by Train from East to West and reached the station A where you get down and catch the train that travels backward, West to East and you reach Station B.
1. Here the railway tracks, which run in parallel can be viewed as parallel universes.
2. The trains can be realized as the space-craft or vehicle that travels through time, probably a Time Machine. 3. 3. The stations A & B, where you cross the platform and reach the parallel universe, can be considered as the points of contact between the two universes.
Sometimes physicists come up with crazier ideas and theories! This happens most of the times when the current physics or knowledge is not enough to explain the nature's phenomena. Parallel universes is a similar concept. While physicist say that we aren't the only universe that is present. Other parallel universes may coexist with ours, the only difference is time, I would ask them why do you expect that there will be a difference in time between the parallel universes?! According to me, may be or may not be. What if the parallel universes are running on same time?!
In order to proceed further with our example, we need to understand the fundamental concepts behind this phenomena. We all know that in our universe, apart from matter there is empty space but it's not really empty as it consists of dark matter or vacuum energy. Also, there are black holes exist in those dark matter. Black hole is nothing but a hole that observes everything and reflects nothing. Lets consider an iron piece as an example for black body. At room temperature, black bodies emit mostly infrared wavelengths, but as the temperature increases past a few hundred degrees Celsius, black bodies start to emit visible wavelengths, appearing red, orange, yellow, white, and blue with increasing temperature. By the time an object is white, it is emitting substantial ultraviolet radiation.
Similarly (according to the general theory of relativity) a black hole, is a region of space from which nothing, not even light, can escape. It is the result of the deformation of space-time caused by a very compact mass. It is called "black" because it absorbs all the light that hits it, reflecting nothing, just like a perfect black body in thermodynamics.
What does this black hole have to do with Time travel? Due to its unique behavior of attraction and absorption, black hole does not only swallows the matter and light, also it bends (actually twists) the matter and light that is hit at its event horizon. What is event horizon? Around a black hole there is an undetectable surface which marks the point of no return of that black hole. Even Light can't escape from its force.
There are two types of black holes:
1. Resting black holes - These have clean spherical event horizons.
2. Rotating black holes - These black holes have distorted, non-spherical event horizons due to it's whirlpool.
The event horizon is not a material surface but rather merely a mathematically defined demarcation boundary, nothing prevents matter or radiation from entering a black hole, only from exiting one. Provided this fact, physicists also believe that when black hole passes through our galaxy it just simply twists the matter, light and surprisingly also the Time! So, a universe filled with time that flowed like a rotating fluid. Anyone walking along the direction of rotation would find oneself back at the starting point, but backwards in time!
It's surprising, at least, to me because I don't see Time as a bendable attribute of this universe. Either I didn't understand Time completely or physicists fell for the nature's illusion! Also they say that black hole may help us to travel faster than the speed of Light. Given this, during the twisting, a whirl pool of space and time is created! When the whirl pool is twisting time and space, there will be two paths of same time and space current. I mean, the current of time and space is split into two parallel instances which are whirling around the black hole.
During this whirl, two things would be happening.
1. Matter would be whirling around the black hole at it's own speed which is slower than the speed of Light.
2. Light would be whirling around the black hole at the speed of itself (c).
Now, if we start our journey via space craft from one side of the pool to the other side, in other words, one time reference to the other across black hole, then we may be able to reach the other side even before matter and Light would reach as if black hole supports a matter to travel faster than the speed of Light with its huge amount of energy that it consists of. Inside the black hole as the matter travels faster than Light, Time ends up stand still! It sounds like a virtual shortcut but it's hypothetically, yet scientifically, believed to be true!
On the other hand, due to gravitational time dilation (similar to twin paradox) while a distant observer can see the effects like clock slowing down or red-shift, etc of the object that falls at the event horizon, an observer, who is falling into a black hole, does not notice any of these effects as he crosses the event horizon. According to his own clock, he crosses the event horizon after a finite time, although he is unable to determine exactly when he crosses it, as it is impossible to determine the location of the event horizon from local observations.
However, many physicists could not accept the idea of time standing still at the radius of the black holes, and there was little interest in the subject for over 20 years. Sometimes, I ask myself, 'Did even Einstein fall for the illusionist, so called Time?'!
1. Here the railway tracks, which run in parallel can be viewed as parallel universes.
2. The trains can be realized as the space-craft or vehicle that travels through time, probably a Time Machine. 3. 3. The stations A & B, where you cross the platform and reach the parallel universe, can be considered as the points of contact between the two universes.
Sometimes physicists come up with crazier ideas and theories! This happens most of the times when the current physics or knowledge is not enough to explain the nature's phenomena. Parallel universes is a similar concept. While physicist say that we aren't the only universe that is present. Other parallel universes may coexist with ours, the only difference is time, I would ask them why do you expect that there will be a difference in time between the parallel universes?! According to me, may be or may not be. What if the parallel universes are running on same time?!
In order to proceed further with our example, we need to understand the fundamental concepts behind this phenomena. We all know that in our universe, apart from matter there is empty space but it's not really empty as it consists of dark matter or vacuum energy. Also, there are black holes exist in those dark matter. Black hole is nothing but a hole that observes everything and reflects nothing. Lets consider an iron piece as an example for black body. At room temperature, black bodies emit mostly infrared wavelengths, but as the temperature increases past a few hundred degrees Celsius, black bodies start to emit visible wavelengths, appearing red, orange, yellow, white, and blue with increasing temperature. By the time an object is white, it is emitting substantial ultraviolet radiation.
Similarly (according to the general theory of relativity) a black hole, is a region of space from which nothing, not even light, can escape. It is the result of the deformation of space-time caused by a very compact mass. It is called "black" because it absorbs all the light that hits it, reflecting nothing, just like a perfect black body in thermodynamics.
What does this black hole have to do with Time travel? Due to its unique behavior of attraction and absorption, black hole does not only swallows the matter and light, also it bends (actually twists) the matter and light that is hit at its event horizon. What is event horizon? Around a black hole there is an undetectable surface which marks the point of no return of that black hole. Even Light can't escape from its force.
There are two types of black holes:
1. Resting black holes - These have clean spherical event horizons.
2. Rotating black holes - These black holes have distorted, non-spherical event horizons due to it's whirlpool.
The event horizon is not a material surface but rather merely a mathematically defined demarcation boundary, nothing prevents matter or radiation from entering a black hole, only from exiting one. Provided this fact, physicists also believe that when black hole passes through our galaxy it just simply twists the matter, light and surprisingly also the Time! So, a universe filled with time that flowed like a rotating fluid. Anyone walking along the direction of rotation would find oneself back at the starting point, but backwards in time!
It's surprising, at least, to me because I don't see Time as a bendable attribute of this universe. Either I didn't understand Time completely or physicists fell for the nature's illusion! Also they say that black hole may help us to travel faster than the speed of Light. Given this, during the twisting, a whirl pool of space and time is created! When the whirl pool is twisting time and space, there will be two paths of same time and space current. I mean, the current of time and space is split into two parallel instances which are whirling around the black hole.
During this whirl, two things would be happening.
1. Matter would be whirling around the black hole at it's own speed which is slower than the speed of Light.
2. Light would be whirling around the black hole at the speed of itself (c).
Now, if we start our journey via space craft from one side of the pool to the other side, in other words, one time reference to the other across black hole, then we may be able to reach the other side even before matter and Light would reach as if black hole supports a matter to travel faster than the speed of Light with its huge amount of energy that it consists of. Inside the black hole as the matter travels faster than Light, Time ends up stand still! It sounds like a virtual shortcut but it's hypothetically, yet scientifically, believed to be true!
On the other hand, due to gravitational time dilation (similar to twin paradox) while a distant observer can see the effects like clock slowing down or red-shift, etc of the object that falls at the event horizon, an observer, who is falling into a black hole, does not notice any of these effects as he crosses the event horizon. According to his own clock, he crosses the event horizon after a finite time, although he is unable to determine exactly when he crosses it, as it is impossible to determine the location of the event horizon from local observations.
However, many physicists could not accept the idea of time standing still at the radius of the black holes, and there was little interest in the subject for over 20 years. Sometimes, I ask myself, 'Did even Einstein fall for the illusionist, so called Time?'!
Monday, August 23, 2010
7. Multiple or Parallel Universes
In recent times of quantum mechanics, physicists have come up with various theories like 'String' theory, 'M' theory or 'Membrane' theory to resolve the mysteries of our universe. The major objective behind these theories is to combine general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics and form the grand unified theory of everything in this universe! You could find various interesting posts on quantum mechanics about quantum theories and unified theory of everything here http://scienceofquantums.blogspot.com/.
However, you might wonder what does Time travel do with these quantum theories! In this post, I would not discuss or analyze whether the quantum theory itself is valid or not. Rather I would concentrate on analyzing whether the parallel universe concept is applicable for Time travel or not and if yes, how it is applicable and so on.
Traveling to the past:
We know how Einstein's time dilation concept help us travel to the future of Earth's time but there is no concept that says traveling to the past is possible. So, quantum physicists came up with a theory that what if there are multiple universes or parallel universes exist. What they mean by parallel universe is that universe besides universe. That means that at the same time, multiple instances of everything exist in parallel and each moves at their own fabric of Time and space.
The fundamental idea behind this theory solely from the weird or spooky behavior of quantums. Quantum mechanics demands or claims that an electron exists at one point of space when we observe but the same electron exists everywhere in the universe if we don't observe. This is what the outcome of the double-slit experiment. Instead of passing through a slit as one particle, electron split itself into two instances (like how a wave does), pass through both the slits and meet (cut across) each other in the other side of the slits.
In outer space what we have is nothing but vacuum and that's why all the experimental determinations have been made in vacuum. However, the vacuum is not really empty. The vacuum has energy associated with it, called the vacuum energy. This vacuum energy can perhaps be changed in certain cases. When vacuum energy is lowered, light itself has been predicted to go faster than the standard value 'c'. This is known as the Scharnhorst effect.
This experiment leads us to various ideas on how electron or photon behaves. This experiment does not only conclude that an electron behaves like a wave or like a particle depends on whether it's observed/realized by external object or not but it also demands that an electron can exist at different points in space simultaneously. Even inside an atom, an electron can exist simultaneously in different orbits! Lets call them as 1st instance and 2nd instance for easy discussion. The theory says that it may be possible that the 2nd instance of the same electron joins with set of 2nd instances of other electrons and atoms. That may form 2nd instance of the same atom. As we move upwards in the process, eventually, there could be 2nd instance of you, me, everything in this universe! The theory also demands that it could be possible to have more no of. universes!
Einstein also analyzed the possibility of traveling to the past. It may be possible that if we travel faster than the speed of light, we would travel into our own past! but his analysis and experiments didn't support this idea because according to him, the following facts conclude that traveling to the past is hardly possible using for us.
There is an experiment that shows the possibility of traveling more than the speed of light. In this experiment, a vacuum is produced by bringing two perfectly smooth metal plates together at near atomic diameter spacing. It is called a Casimir vacuum. Calculations imply that light will go faster in such a vacuum by a minuscule amount: a photon traveling between two plates that are 1 micrometer apart would increase the photon's speed by only about one part in 1036. Accordingly there has as yet been no experimental verification of the prediction.
A recent analysis argued that the Scharnhorst effect cannot be used to send information backwards in time with a single set of plates since the plates' rest frame would define a "preferred frame" for FTL signalling. However, with multiple pairs of plates in motion relative to one another the authors noted that feedback loops of virtual particles would create "uncontrollable singularities in the renormalized quantum stress-energy" on the boundary of any potential time machine, and thus would require a theory of quantum gravity to fully analyze.
Other authors argue that Scharnhorst's original analysis which seemed to show the possibility of faster-than-c signals involved approximations which may be incorrect, so that it is not clear whether this effect could actually increase signal speed at all.
Having said that, lets come back to our analysis. Consider only two instances or two parallel universes to keep it simple. While Einstein's theory of relativity doesn't support traveling to the past much, quantum physicists claim that it may be possible to travel to the past, not our universe, but to our parallel universe. In other words, you can start from 1st instance of an universe and move to the past of the 2nd universe where you might have not been even born! Lets see 'how' in my next post!
However, you might wonder what does Time travel do with these quantum theories! In this post, I would not discuss or analyze whether the quantum theory itself is valid or not. Rather I would concentrate on analyzing whether the parallel universe concept is applicable for Time travel or not and if yes, how it is applicable and so on.
Traveling to the past:
We know how Einstein's time dilation concept help us travel to the future of Earth's time but there is no concept that says traveling to the past is possible. So, quantum physicists came up with a theory that what if there are multiple universes or parallel universes exist. What they mean by parallel universe is that universe besides universe. That means that at the same time, multiple instances of everything exist in parallel and each moves at their own fabric of Time and space.
The fundamental idea behind this theory solely from the weird or spooky behavior of quantums. Quantum mechanics demands or claims that an electron exists at one point of space when we observe but the same electron exists everywhere in the universe if we don't observe. This is what the outcome of the double-slit experiment. Instead of passing through a slit as one particle, electron split itself into two instances (like how a wave does), pass through both the slits and meet (cut across) each other in the other side of the slits.
In outer space what we have is nothing but vacuum and that's why all the experimental determinations have been made in vacuum. However, the vacuum is not really empty. The vacuum has energy associated with it, called the vacuum energy. This vacuum energy can perhaps be changed in certain cases. When vacuum energy is lowered, light itself has been predicted to go faster than the standard value 'c'. This is known as the Scharnhorst effect.
This experiment leads us to various ideas on how electron or photon behaves. This experiment does not only conclude that an electron behaves like a wave or like a particle depends on whether it's observed/realized by external object or not but it also demands that an electron can exist at different points in space simultaneously. Even inside an atom, an electron can exist simultaneously in different orbits! Lets call them as 1st instance and 2nd instance for easy discussion. The theory says that it may be possible that the 2nd instance of the same electron joins with set of 2nd instances of other electrons and atoms. That may form 2nd instance of the same atom. As we move upwards in the process, eventually, there could be 2nd instance of you, me, everything in this universe! The theory also demands that it could be possible to have more no of. universes!
Einstein also analyzed the possibility of traveling to the past. It may be possible that if we travel faster than the speed of light, we would travel into our own past! but his analysis and experiments didn't support this idea because according to him, the following facts conclude that traveling to the past is hardly possible using for us.
- The relativistic momentum of a massive particle would increase with speed in such a way that at the speed of light an object would have infinite momentum.
- To accelerate an object of non-zero rest mass to c would require infinite time with any finite acceleration, or infinite acceleration for a finite amount of time.
- Either way, such acceleration requires infinite energy. Going beyond the speed of light in a homogeneous space would hence require more than infinite energy, which is not generally considered to be a sensible notion.
- Some observers with sub-light relative motion will disagree about which occurs first of any two events that are separated by a space-like interval. In other words, any travel that is faster-than-light will be seen as traveling backwards in time in some other, equally valid, frames of reference, or need to assume the speculative hypothesis of possible Lorentz violations at a presently unobserved scale (for instance the Planck scale). Therefore any theory which permits "True faster than Light" also has to cope with time travel and all its associated paradoxes, or else to assume the Lorentz invariance to be a symmetry of thermodynamical statistical nature (hence a symmetry broken at some presently unobserved scale).
- While special and general relativity do not allow superluminal speeds locally, non-local means may be possible, which means moving with space rather than moving through space.
There is an experiment that shows the possibility of traveling more than the speed of light. In this experiment, a vacuum is produced by bringing two perfectly smooth metal plates together at near atomic diameter spacing. It is called a Casimir vacuum. Calculations imply that light will go faster in such a vacuum by a minuscule amount: a photon traveling between two plates that are 1 micrometer apart would increase the photon's speed by only about one part in 1036. Accordingly there has as yet been no experimental verification of the prediction.
A recent analysis argued that the Scharnhorst effect cannot be used to send information backwards in time with a single set of plates since the plates' rest frame would define a "preferred frame" for FTL signalling. However, with multiple pairs of plates in motion relative to one another the authors noted that feedback loops of virtual particles would create "uncontrollable singularities in the renormalized quantum stress-energy" on the boundary of any potential time machine, and thus would require a theory of quantum gravity to fully analyze.
Other authors argue that Scharnhorst's original analysis which seemed to show the possibility of faster-than-c signals involved approximations which may be incorrect, so that it is not clear whether this effect could actually increase signal speed at all.
Having said that, lets come back to our analysis. Consider only two instances or two parallel universes to keep it simple. While Einstein's theory of relativity doesn't support traveling to the past much, quantum physicists claim that it may be possible to travel to the past, not our universe, but to our parallel universe. In other words, you can start from 1st instance of an universe and move to the past of the 2nd universe where you might have not been even born! Lets see 'how' in my next post!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
6. Traveling back and forth in space
Okay, we are back on this topic now... we know that our previous approaches led us nowhere. Having said that let's start our discussion with another example.
You are traveling by a train from East, say from station A, to West, say to station B (While traveling from the Past to Future, Present is always a pointer to the current instant and so let's ignore it). Now, there is another train coming from West to East and both trains stop at stations A and B side by side. Now you reach a station B where you get down and catch the other train! Of course now you are traveling towards to East, station A, that means you are traveling in the opposite direction.
You haven't reached the destination yet. You are still traveling towards to station A. Let's say that once you reach station A, you want to restart your journey all over again! So, you reach that station and jump on to the other train which goes from East to West. So, now you are in the same train where you were traveling before, from East to West. So, here is what happened.
(East) Station A -> Train travels from East to West -> West (Station B)
-> (Change the side) ->
(West) Station B -> Train travels from West to East -> East (Station A)
For people who live in Metro cities and travel by train everyday, this example might be 50% of their daily life. Though it is a simple example, it can help us to understand 'Time travel' in a better way. Now, let's redefine this example in terms of 'Time travel'.
A man starts his life from 2000AD towards to 2075AD (say he lives for 75 years). Once he reaches 2075AD, he wants to travel back to 2000AD to restart his life. In order for this to happen, we need two stations (as we saw in above example), station A & station B. These stations are his starting and end points but apart from this, what do you think about what makes these stations important or special?
I know that you are smart! Yes, you got it. The trains 'meet' at these stations. We need these stations or junctions to catch trains which travel in different directions. Similarly we need such ports or point of contacts which connect the two 'relative time tracks' which run on the Earth. Otherwise, it's not possible to travel to the Past and back to the Future! Consequently this leads us to few more questions, isn't it?
What about the point of contacts which connect different time tracks? How do they do it? We all know that there is a time track in this universe, running forward (in one direction) all the time and we travel on it, but what about the parallel track which, theoretically, seems capable of taking us to the Past if we can jump on it? Think through it.. I will be right back with my next post.
You are traveling by a train from East, say from station A, to West, say to station B (While traveling from the Past to Future, Present is always a pointer to the current instant and so let's ignore it). Now, there is another train coming from West to East and both trains stop at stations A and B side by side. Now you reach a station B where you get down and catch the other train! Of course now you are traveling towards to East, station A, that means you are traveling in the opposite direction.
You haven't reached the destination yet. You are still traveling towards to station A. Let's say that once you reach station A, you want to restart your journey all over again! So, you reach that station and jump on to the other train which goes from East to West. So, now you are in the same train where you were traveling before, from East to West. So, here is what happened.
(East) Station A -> Train travels from East to West -> West (Station B)
-> (Change the side) ->
(West) Station B -> Train travels from West to East -> East (Station A)
For people who live in Metro cities and travel by train everyday, this example might be 50% of their daily life. Though it is a simple example, it can help us to understand 'Time travel' in a better way. Now, let's redefine this example in terms of 'Time travel'.
A man starts his life from 2000AD towards to 2075AD (say he lives for 75 years). Once he reaches 2075AD, he wants to travel back to 2000AD to restart his life. In order for this to happen, we need two stations (as we saw in above example), station A & station B. These stations are his starting and end points but apart from this, what do you think about what makes these stations important or special?
I know that you are smart! Yes, you got it. The trains 'meet' at these stations. We need these stations or junctions to catch trains which travel in different directions. Similarly we need such ports or point of contacts which connect the two 'relative time tracks' which run on the Earth. Otherwise, it's not possible to travel to the Past and back to the Future! Consequently this leads us to few more questions, isn't it?
What about the point of contacts which connect different time tracks? How do they do it? We all know that there is a time track in this universe, running forward (in one direction) all the time and we travel on it, but what about the parallel track which, theoretically, seems capable of taking us to the Past if we can jump on it? Think through it.. I will be right back with my next post.
5. Why can't we travel to the Past?
Yes, after going through Twin Paradox we understand how it is possible to travel to the Future and also know that traveling to the past is not proven yet!
Now, let's see why we can't prove it or why it is not possible. I would like to do reverse engineering/analysis on this. So, here it goes...
Traveling to the Future -> because
1. Relative time on the Earth runs always forward in it's calender - This is because new things are happening every second, I mean to say that we move towards to future second by second.
2. You travel at or close to the speed of Light - This slows down your clock in the space-craft (referring to Twin Paradox)
Now, let's try to understand what is making travel to the Past impossible.
1. Relative time on the Earth does NOT run backward
2. At the minimum speed, say 0, we stay on Earth's relative Time and at maximum, say at the speed of Light, you travel to the Future.
Now, what do you think that we may need to travel to the Past? At least, just couple of more questions..
1. What if we can stop the Time on Earth once you start the travel in the space craft?
2. Is it possible to travel in "negative speed" or more than the speed of Light?
To answer the first question, let's consider a situation where stopping Time on Earth is possible. So, we get into a space craft start the journey and at the same time we stop the Time on Earth. So, what does happen when we will return to the Earth? We'll come back to the same time when we left the Earth! As your clock runs for x number of years (your journey time), you come back to the past (relative to the clock you had in the space-craft).
Though it appears that you traveled back to the Past, technically you did 'NOT'. You just came back to the same point where you left. What we mean by 'travel to the Past' is that we should be able to go to the time where we weren't even born or even our parents weren't even born, like from 2010 AD to 1850AD.
Let's look at our 2nd question. What do you think of "negative speed"? Time can never have a negative value just like the other three dimensions. So, the only option we are left with is traveling at more than the speed of light. So, is that all? Nope, the basic problem with this approach is that technically it's not possible to build a machine to travel at more than speed of light because what we are made up of is bound to the laws of nature that's driven by Light itself. Science even predicts that it may not be even possible to create a machine to travel at the speed of light because only photons can travel at the speed of 299792458 m/s, having zero mass!
Now, let's see why we can't prove it or why it is not possible. I would like to do reverse engineering/analysis on this. So, here it goes...
Traveling to the Future -> because
1. Relative time on the Earth runs always forward in it's calender - This is because new things are happening every second, I mean to say that we move towards to future second by second.
2. You travel at or close to the speed of Light - This slows down your clock in the space-craft (referring to Twin Paradox)
Now, let's try to understand what is making travel to the Past impossible.
1. Relative time on the Earth does NOT run backward
2. At the minimum speed, say 0, we stay on Earth's relative Time and at maximum, say at the speed of Light, you travel to the Future.
Now, what do you think that we may need to travel to the Past? At least, just couple of more questions..
1. What if we can stop the Time on Earth once you start the travel in the space craft?
2. Is it possible to travel in "negative speed" or more than the speed of Light?
To answer the first question, let's consider a situation where stopping Time on Earth is possible. So, we get into a space craft start the journey and at the same time we stop the Time on Earth. So, what does happen when we will return to the Earth? We'll come back to the same time when we left the Earth! As your clock runs for x number of years (your journey time), you come back to the past (relative to the clock you had in the space-craft).
Though it appears that you traveled back to the Past, technically you did 'NOT'. You just came back to the same point where you left. What we mean by 'travel to the Past' is that we should be able to go to the time where we weren't even born or even our parents weren't even born, like from 2010 AD to 1850AD.
Let's look at our 2nd question. What do you think of "negative speed"? Time can never have a negative value just like the other three dimensions. So, the only option we are left with is traveling at more than the speed of light. So, is that all? Nope, the basic problem with this approach is that technically it's not possible to build a machine to travel at more than speed of light because what we are made up of is bound to the laws of nature that's driven by Light itself. Science even predicts that it may not be even possible to create a machine to travel at the speed of light because only photons can travel at the speed of 299792458 m/s, having zero mass!
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
4. Can we travel through Time?
Hello! Welcome to our new topic.. Time travel - One of my favorite and fascinating topics related to Time.
We have seen it in movies like Back to the Future, Somewhere in Time, The Time Machine, The Butterfly Effect, etc. Ever since Einstein had explained Time Dilation in his Special Theory of Relativity in the early 19th century, the concept captured every one's attention and gave a hope and formed a curiosity in every one's mind about traveling through Time!
Right now, we all know what Time travel is. If you are not sure, what I am talking about, then here is the explanation for you. Time travel is a hypothetical concept (so far) which states that it is possible for us to travel to the future as well as the past. For an instance, one can travel from 2010AD to 2150AD or 2010AD to 1750AD but the concept doesn't involve any proof or come up with any theory that says how it is possible!
In 1905, Einstein's Time Dilation theoretically proved the concept of Time Travel. I would say, At least it has an explanation that supports the possibility of Time travel. Still the explanation is partial. What I mean by partial is that Time Dilation proves only the travel to the Future and the traveling to the past is still a mystery!
Let's see what Time Dilation tells about Time travel. In order to understand Time Dilation, let's explore a concept called 'Twin Paradox'. It goes as.. there were twin brothers and one of them was a space traveler. One day, he started his journey into space for a mission with a help of a space craft that can travel at the speed of Light (Technically it's not possible because any matter, from this universe, can't travel at the speed of Light but it's possible to create space craft which can travel at speed that is close to the speed of Light).
Please refer the below diagram (diagram is from here) for better understanding.
As this diagram shows, space traveler starts his journey into space while the twin brother stays on earth. Let's say that the Time axis is in terms of years in this space-time graph. Though they started at the same time, as you see in the diagram, when the space traveler spent 6 years in travel and returns to the earth, the twin, who stayed on earth, would have already completed 10 years of life. These numbers are not exact results but the objective is to give you a clear understanding of the Time Dilation!
Here you go, notice that the space traveler ultimately ended up traveling into the Future! But traveling to the past is still a question! So until we prove traveling to the past is also possible, Time travel remains a mystery, at least partially!
We have seen it in movies like Back to the Future, Somewhere in Time, The Time Machine, The Butterfly Effect, etc. Ever since Einstein had explained Time Dilation in his Special Theory of Relativity in the early 19th century, the concept captured every one's attention and gave a hope and formed a curiosity in every one's mind about traveling through Time!
Right now, we all know what Time travel is. If you are not sure, what I am talking about, then here is the explanation for you. Time travel is a hypothetical concept (so far) which states that it is possible for us to travel to the future as well as the past. For an instance, one can travel from 2010AD to 2150AD or 2010AD to 1750AD but the concept doesn't involve any proof or come up with any theory that says how it is possible!
In 1905, Einstein's Time Dilation theoretically proved the concept of Time Travel. I would say, At least it has an explanation that supports the possibility of Time travel. Still the explanation is partial. What I mean by partial is that Time Dilation proves only the travel to the Future and the traveling to the past is still a mystery!
Let's see what Time Dilation tells about Time travel. In order to understand Time Dilation, let's explore a concept called 'Twin Paradox'. It goes as.. there were twin brothers and one of them was a space traveler. One day, he started his journey into space for a mission with a help of a space craft that can travel at the speed of Light (Technically it's not possible because any matter, from this universe, can't travel at the speed of Light but it's possible to create space craft which can travel at speed that is close to the speed of Light).
Please refer the below diagram (diagram is from here) for better understanding.
Here you go, notice that the space traveler ultimately ended up traveling into the Future! But traveling to the past is still a question! So until we prove traveling to the past is also possible, Time travel remains a mystery, at least partially!
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
3. Is Time absolute or relative?
In our previous posts, we had gone through Time Dilation to understand the origin of Time but let's see what Time Dilation has to say about absolute time and relative time.
Let's start with a hypothesis and two stand points to start with. Since, we already have seen that Time Dilation is all about relative time, we can not take a stand point that says 'Time is absolute and not relative'. So, what we are left with are 1. Time is absolute and relative, 2. Time is not absolute but only relative. Before we start our analysis, let's understand the absolute and relative time concepts.
Absolute time is based on the thought of Isaac Newton. Absolute time is something which runs by itself and is not affected by any external force or factors. When we say it is unaffected, it means that for an occurred event, it will NOT show different time to different observers from different frame of references. Hence it's absolute.
Relative time is subjective and it's what we observe from our perspective but the absolute one becomes visible when the two subjects come out of their own reference frames! Doesn't it sound like some psychology or philosophy stuff? Yes, that's why Einstein is a Genius. His relativity theories are so generic that we can even apply in our daily lives to gain insight to our problems. Anyway, let's stick to our topic. When observers observe a time from different frame of references, they would see different time for themselves. Hence it's called a relative to the observer or observer's frame of reference or perspective.
Now, let's proceed with the first case. Time can be both absolute and relative. Let's say an event started and ended after some time. Now to determine the duration, we have two clocks. One shows absolute time and another clock shows a relative time depends on from where we observe. How could we have two clocks showing two different times? This is possible only when the same event occurred at different spaces in different durations.
Let's take an example of running two different DVD players and one runs a movie in a normal mode and another one runs in fast forward. The time elapsed is shown, in both players, differ. Similarly, only when an event occurs in absolute space-time curvature, it shows a time and when the same event occurs in a relative space-time curvature, it will show different time to the observer as per his frame of reference.
In order for this to happen, we need to first prove that the absolute space-time curvature exists. According to Einstein's special & general theory of relativity, the time duration is based on when the observer observes the event and the observation depends how fast Light can travel and reach the observer. So, ultimately Time depends on speed of Light. For observers in different frames of references, Time is always relative since their frame of references are in relative space.
We had seen that two observers encounter a huge difference in Time after space travel due to Time Dilation. It is not because of the difference between absolute and relative space-time but the difference between the two frames of references. That's why, as soon as the two observers meet up in a single frame of reference, the clocks start to tick in a same way.
As long as an observer can never be observing from an absolute space, absolute time will remain hypothetical and as long as absolute time is hypothetical, Time can never be proven to be absolute! So here we are ending up with our second stand point - Time is not absolute but only relative!
Let's start with a hypothesis and two stand points to start with. Since, we already have seen that Time Dilation is all about relative time, we can not take a stand point that says 'Time is absolute and not relative'. So, what we are left with are 1. Time is absolute and relative, 2. Time is not absolute but only relative. Before we start our analysis, let's understand the absolute and relative time concepts.
Absolute time is based on the thought of Isaac Newton. Absolute time is something which runs by itself and is not affected by any external force or factors. When we say it is unaffected, it means that for an occurred event, it will NOT show different time to different observers from different frame of references. Hence it's absolute.
Relative time is subjective and it's what we observe from our perspective but the absolute one becomes visible when the two subjects come out of their own reference frames! Doesn't it sound like some psychology or philosophy stuff? Yes, that's why Einstein is a Genius. His relativity theories are so generic that we can even apply in our daily lives to gain insight to our problems. Anyway, let's stick to our topic. When observers observe a time from different frame of references, they would see different time for themselves. Hence it's called a relative to the observer or observer's frame of reference or perspective.
Now, let's proceed with the first case. Time can be both absolute and relative. Let's say an event started and ended after some time. Now to determine the duration, we have two clocks. One shows absolute time and another clock shows a relative time depends on from where we observe. How could we have two clocks showing two different times? This is possible only when the same event occurred at different spaces in different durations.
Let's take an example of running two different DVD players and one runs a movie in a normal mode and another one runs in fast forward. The time elapsed is shown, in both players, differ. Similarly, only when an event occurs in absolute space-time curvature, it shows a time and when the same event occurs in a relative space-time curvature, it will show different time to the observer as per his frame of reference.
In order for this to happen, we need to first prove that the absolute space-time curvature exists. According to Einstein's special & general theory of relativity, the time duration is based on when the observer observes the event and the observation depends how fast Light can travel and reach the observer. So, ultimately Time depends on speed of Light. For observers in different frames of references, Time is always relative since their frame of references are in relative space.
We had seen that two observers encounter a huge difference in Time after space travel due to Time Dilation. It is not because of the difference between absolute and relative space-time but the difference between the two frames of references. That's why, as soon as the two observers meet up in a single frame of reference, the clocks start to tick in a same way.
As long as an observer can never be observing from an absolute space, absolute time will remain hypothetical and as long as absolute time is hypothetical, Time can never be proven to be absolute! So here we are ending up with our second stand point - Time is not absolute but only relative!
Sunday, August 8, 2010
2.a. Origin of Time continued...
Let's take our second stand point in this post. Time exists forever as it is part of our world's existence.
Let's start with time comes into existence when there is a start and an end. There can be a start and an end when there is a motion. So, if everything is idle in a world, then there is NO TIME! So, we can say that at the very instant when the first movement occurred in the universe, the Time was born!
We all know about Big Bang theory. Our universe was tiny in size with maximum pressure, huge temperatures and incredibly dense with high energy. Our interest here is where we see Time. Big Bang also states that the highly compressed universe started to expand around 13.9 billion years ago. Approximately 10−37 seconds into the expansion, a phase transition caused a cosmic inflation, during which the Universe grew exponentially.
In my previous post, we saw that Time came into existence when the motion started for the first time. If we consider that the universe was idle before Big Bang, then we are right. Time came into existence the very soon after the Big Bang occurred. I mean to say that the Time, what we are referring now days, came into existence at the 10−37th second after expansion but what if the universe was active even before Big Bang? Think through it...
There is another perspective to understand Time. That's what explained in special theory of relativity by Mr. Albert Einstein. He explained a concept called Time dilation. Let's take a look at it.
When a second-hand ticks in a clock, we call the time interval as 'a second'. Let's consider that you are sitting in a jet which moves away from the clock at the highest possible speed, say speed of light. As you move further away, you see the second-hand now takes more than a second to tick. That's because the light takes more time to reach you! If it doesn't make sense let's consider a simple scenario to understand this much better.
You are watching a movie, played from a DVD player. As the player plays the video, it also indicates the time elapsed and the time left in it's LCD display. Now, the movie suddenly stops! You would also not miss to notice or realize that the elapsed time is also stopped at a specific point. I know this example might sound too simple to understand Einstein's concept but trust me that's what happens when you see that things around you stop moving!
Yes, now you got it where I am going to. The Light is the primary cause for the Time to exist in this universe. That's why when the speed of your frame of reference changes, there is a change in Time. You can have a question that, there are fastest trains in the world and will the travelers refer different time than others who are in resting frame? No, because Time is relative to one's frame of reference.
The individuals always see their watches showing the same time but the difference gets the visibility after the travel when they both meet each other in a same frame of reference. The amount of difference is proportional to the speed or I would say, as it approaches the speed of light. Finally, does it have anything to say about Time's origination? Yes. Time is a byproduct of Light. If there is no Light in this universe, there is no Time. Let me clarify 'Light' here. We are not talking about electricity. This is the electromagnetic waves which has been giving Life to our universe for the last 14 billion years!
Hence, irrespective of whether the universe was active or idle before Big Bang, the Time, what we are referring, came into existence when the Light came into existence and that means at the 10−37th second after Big Bang!
Let's start with time comes into existence when there is a start and an end. There can be a start and an end when there is a motion. So, if everything is idle in a world, then there is NO TIME! So, we can say that at the very instant when the first movement occurred in the universe, the Time was born!
We all know about Big Bang theory. Our universe was tiny in size with maximum pressure, huge temperatures and incredibly dense with high energy. Our interest here is where we see Time. Big Bang also states that the highly compressed universe started to expand around 13.9 billion years ago. Approximately 10−37 seconds into the expansion, a phase transition caused a cosmic inflation, during which the Universe grew exponentially.
In my previous post, we saw that Time came into existence when the motion started for the first time. If we consider that the universe was idle before Big Bang, then we are right. Time came into existence the very soon after the Big Bang occurred. I mean to say that the Time, what we are referring now days, came into existence at the 10−37th second after expansion but what if the universe was active even before Big Bang? Think through it...
There is another perspective to understand Time. That's what explained in special theory of relativity by Mr. Albert Einstein. He explained a concept called Time dilation. Let's take a look at it.
When a second-hand ticks in a clock, we call the time interval as 'a second'. Let's consider that you are sitting in a jet which moves away from the clock at the highest possible speed, say speed of light. As you move further away, you see the second-hand now takes more than a second to tick. That's because the light takes more time to reach you! If it doesn't make sense let's consider a simple scenario to understand this much better.
You are watching a movie, played from a DVD player. As the player plays the video, it also indicates the time elapsed and the time left in it's LCD display. Now, the movie suddenly stops! You would also not miss to notice or realize that the elapsed time is also stopped at a specific point. I know this example might sound too simple to understand Einstein's concept but trust me that's what happens when you see that things around you stop moving!
Yes, now you got it where I am going to. The Light is the primary cause for the Time to exist in this universe. That's why when the speed of your frame of reference changes, there is a change in Time. You can have a question that, there are fastest trains in the world and will the travelers refer different time than others who are in resting frame? No, because Time is relative to one's frame of reference.
The individuals always see their watches showing the same time but the difference gets the visibility after the travel when they both meet each other in a same frame of reference. The amount of difference is proportional to the speed or I would say, as it approaches the speed of light. Finally, does it have anything to say about Time's origination? Yes. Time is a byproduct of Light. If there is no Light in this universe, there is no Time. Let me clarify 'Light' here. We are not talking about electricity. This is the electromagnetic waves which has been giving Life to our universe for the last 14 billion years!
Hence, irrespective of whether the universe was active or idle before Big Bang, the Time, what we are referring, came into existence when the Light came into existence and that means at the 10−37th second after Big Bang!
Saturday, August 7, 2010
2. Origin of Time
Welcome back on Time..
Once I asked this question to myself 'When did Time start?' I didn't have a firm answer and so what. I started my research to find it but soon I ended up with few more questions like 'How did Time come to existence?', 'Did Time have a real start?', 'Is Time endless?' etc.
Before jumping into conclusions, let's have a hypothesis. There are two stand points to start with 1) Time never exists; it's just a man made measurement 2) Time exists forever as it's part of this world's existence. Let's proceed with the first one in this post.
Time never exists; it's just an illusion! Can we say 'Time is just a reference point, a marker for something to start and end'? I think Yes. What if there is no end, say, like immortals who live forever? Will they still have such reference? before answering this question, we have to know who immortal is. We have seen in movies that all immortals are shown as young and beautiful beings! Does it mean they never had a start? I mean have they never born and were they just created young and youthful?
I think the topic leads us into another discussion and so let's ignore about the details of immortals. Let's consider that they came into existence young and youthful and will never grow old and never die. In this case, is Time applicable?... hmm I think we created enough complexities now. Think through it.. while I come up with another example to analyze Time.
Can we say that before man found Clocks, there was no Time? hmm.. not really. We all know that ancient people had reference to Time by setting markers to the position of Sun and Moon. Basically that was how our ancient clocks were initially made. Anyway my point here is, let's consider that today the earth stops revolving! No Sunrise and no Sunset! Do you think will we still have such reference, called Time?
I would still say yes because we already have our clocks running and irrespective of Sunrise and Sunset the clocks will run and so we will have a continuing reference to Time! Let's say we destroy all the clocks in this world! Will we still have Time? Still yes because we can still setup a starting point of time and then start measuring Time in a standard intervals.
So, even in our reference world of immortals where there is no Sunrise, no Sunset and no clock is running, they can still have Time! Ain't we ending up conflicting our initial stand point? unfortunately yes. So, can we say Time exists forever? Let's see in the next post...
Once I asked this question to myself 'When did Time start?' I didn't have a firm answer and so what. I started my research to find it but soon I ended up with few more questions like 'How did Time come to existence?', 'Did Time have a real start?', 'Is Time endless?' etc.
Before jumping into conclusions, let's have a hypothesis. There are two stand points to start with 1) Time never exists; it's just a man made measurement 2) Time exists forever as it's part of this world's existence. Let's proceed with the first one in this post.
Time never exists; it's just an illusion! Can we say 'Time is just a reference point, a marker for something to start and end'? I think Yes. What if there is no end, say, like immortals who live forever? Will they still have such reference? before answering this question, we have to know who immortal is. We have seen in movies that all immortals are shown as young and beautiful beings! Does it mean they never had a start? I mean have they never born and were they just created young and youthful?
I think the topic leads us into another discussion and so let's ignore about the details of immortals. Let's consider that they came into existence young and youthful and will never grow old and never die. In this case, is Time applicable?... hmm I think we created enough complexities now. Think through it.. while I come up with another example to analyze Time.
Can we say that before man found Clocks, there was no Time? hmm.. not really. We all know that ancient people had reference to Time by setting markers to the position of Sun and Moon. Basically that was how our ancient clocks were initially made. Anyway my point here is, let's consider that today the earth stops revolving! No Sunrise and no Sunset! Do you think will we still have such reference, called Time?
I would still say yes because we already have our clocks running and irrespective of Sunrise and Sunset the clocks will run and so we will have a continuing reference to Time! Let's say we destroy all the clocks in this world! Will we still have Time? Still yes because we can still setup a starting point of time and then start measuring Time in a standard intervals.
So, even in our reference world of immortals where there is no Sunrise, no Sunset and no clock is running, they can still have Time! Ain't we ending up conflicting our initial stand point? unfortunately yes. So, can we say Time exists forever? Let's see in the next post...
Let's start...
What would you answer if some one asks you to define Time in next couple of seconds?
Your brain would start browsing your memory and try its best to come up with a best possible definition, at least a possible definition! It might be the definition you studied in your 5th grade or the one that you memorized for the exam in your higher grades.. or it could be a profound thought!
Either way, if I say that being busy in remembering the definition you studied in school, you would simply miss to notice that the question itself has the perception of Time!
Now, read that question once again... yea I hear you saying 'ah.. true.. how did I miss that!'.. Most of the time, we don't even realize that Time always passes through us.. probably whenever we think of 'being punctual', we realize it; that too indirectly (just because we need to make it on time for a gain)! I asked myself 'why?'.
Do we ever realize our dimensions? Have you ever thought how we are made up as three dimensional objects? 90 out of 100 would say 'No, I studied in school but never thought much about it'.. 'why?' We just know because we see everything, including ourselves, in three dimensions all the time and that's it. Nothing much to say or think through.
Is it the same case with Time? Is Time inseparable from us like our other three dimensions? is it really another dimension of us? When Albert Einstein introduced his 'Spacetime' concept, this has really become one of fundamental concepts for defining physical theories of macro world as well as micro world objects. Have you ever seen yourself as a 4 dimensional object?!
What is Spacetime? Is it a typo being one word instead of two words? that's what I thought when I saw this term for the first time! Though we might have studied this in schools, having no idea of what we were gonna do by learning this, reading Einstein's special and general theories of relativity would certainly help us to understand 'Spacetime' much better. In short, this is the 4th dimension that we are talking about!
There are few concepts in physics, which we think we really knew them well as we might have scored well in exams but once we grow up, we understand the very same concept much better, like never before in a new perspective! Anyway, we haven't answered our first question yet, 'how do you define Time?' but I would say that at this point of time we can't really define what Time really is! Let us travel more into time in further posts in order to find the answer.
Your brain would start browsing your memory and try its best to come up with a best possible definition, at least a possible definition! It might be the definition you studied in your 5th grade or the one that you memorized for the exam in your higher grades.. or it could be a profound thought!
Either way, if I say that being busy in remembering the definition you studied in school, you would simply miss to notice that the question itself has the perception of Time!
Now, read that question once again... yea I hear you saying 'ah.. true.. how did I miss that!'.. Most of the time, we don't even realize that Time always passes through us.. probably whenever we think of 'being punctual', we realize it; that too indirectly (just because we need to make it on time for a gain)! I asked myself 'why?'.
Do we ever realize our dimensions? Have you ever thought how we are made up as three dimensional objects? 90 out of 100 would say 'No, I studied in school but never thought much about it'.. 'why?' We just know because we see everything, including ourselves, in three dimensions all the time and that's it. Nothing much to say or think through.
Is it the same case with Time? Is Time inseparable from us like our other three dimensions? is it really another dimension of us? When Albert Einstein introduced his 'Spacetime' concept, this has really become one of fundamental concepts for defining physical theories of macro world as well as micro world objects. Have you ever seen yourself as a 4 dimensional object?!
What is Spacetime? Is it a typo being one word instead of two words? that's what I thought when I saw this term for the first time! Though we might have studied this in schools, having no idea of what we were gonna do by learning this, reading Einstein's special and general theories of relativity would certainly help us to understand 'Spacetime' much better. In short, this is the 4th dimension that we are talking about!
There are few concepts in physics, which we think we really knew them well as we might have scored well in exams but once we grow up, we understand the very same concept much better, like never before in a new perspective! Anyway, we haven't answered our first question yet, 'how do you define Time?' but I would say that at this point of time we can't really define what Time really is! Let us travel more into time in further posts in order to find the answer.
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