Is Time Travel A Fact

By Author: Johnson Philip
Total Articles: 89
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The idea of time-travel, that people from the present go to the past and future, has been used extensively in fiction. But what is the fact about this concept?

History Of The Concept: The idea of Time-travel came into vogue in 1800s when several writers used this idea in their fiction. They gave the name Time-machine to the device using which people traversed across time. However, there was no way then to deduce whether this is a scientific possibility because one had to wait for the twentieth century to understand what time is. Though time looks like a very simple concept gleaned from everyday experience, it is actually a complex physical property closely connected with matter and energy. So much so that in physics it is now accepted as the fourth dimension of space, in addition the well-known dimensions of length, breadth, and height.

Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity was the first framework to open a theoretical insight into the nature of time, but it did not suggest the possibility of time travel. The General Theory of Relativity that came after it for the first time suggested the possibility of some ...
... form of "tunneling" or "burrowing" into time, if we express these ideas in the layman's language. As to whether these things are only a theoretical construct without corresponding physical reality or whether it is a physical possibility is not clear yet because the General Theory of Relativity has not been fully understood or tested almost a century after it was proposed. Meanwhile contemporary scientists like Stephen Hawking have come up with new theories that propose that the laws of nature forbid time travel.

Proposed Methods: Since the theoretical part is still in infancy, no clear cut method is there to experiment with time-travel. However, many have proposed methods that might be testable after technological breakthroughs are made that are at present stuff of science fiction. This includes time-travel with the help of faster-than-light shifting of information. This proposal is based upon the theories of relativity, but at present there is no way to test it or even to tell whether this idea is workable and whether it might show results that have been proposed - when technology to test this proposal becomes available.

Using special effects such as motion through wormholes, and tunneling have also been proposed. However, concepts like wormhole and time-tunneling are themselves in infancy and not understood properly. Thus there is no way to try them at present. Several practical methods have been suggested by others, but it is not feasible to try those experiments at present. Nor is there sufficient theoretical justification to think that these approaches would yield any result.

Some people have tried to give a time-travel explanation for some experiments in physics, but these have not been accepted because explanations based upon pre-existing understanding of physics are able to explain these experiments adequately. Others have proposed that attempts be intensified to contact space creatures who might have a technology more advanced than ours and who might already have mastered the science and technology of time travel. However, more than half a century of experiments and investment of billions of dollars have never yielded any results whatsoever.

The Current Situation: Though the theoretical understanding of time grew in the twentieth century by a big leap, it is still in infancy. Thus time-travel and time-machines continue to be the stuff of science fiction. All the advances of physics and related science in the last five centuries have failed to throw any light on the possibility or the mechanism of time-travel. Some scientists like Stephen Hawking clearly deny the possibility of time travel based upon their studies in theoretical physics. Only "time" will tell the truth about this subject.
Dr. Johnson C. Philip is the webmaster of