Will time travel be possible?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.independen...cs-apart-2360094.html

Was Einstein wrong with his theory of special relativity?

[ichkeria]

If true it makes "time travel" possible for the particles that can achieve such speeds.
And if true yes, it means that Einstein was wrong.

[Lie-in King]

I answered this next Tuesday...

[didoatwork]

Lie-in I saw your answer a week last Monday!

[cathfromsaron]

if it were possible, people would travel 'back' to 2011 and we would know about it!

[wolf63]

They can do it on Star Trek and Stargate so it must be possible.

[anotheoldgit]

Good answer Lie-in King, that is if you are up yet.

If it were possible, what age would you wish to travel back to?

[starone]

If we could we would see what really happened in history, but I don' think we would be able to change it.

[naomi24]

//Was Einstein wrong with his theory of special relativity? //

I've always suspected so.

[anotheoldgit]

Space-Cadet

Everyone over the age of 30 must feel to you, to have come from the Victorian age Space-Cadet.

With a little more of life's experience under your belt, you may one day make it to become a full 'Space Trooper'.

[beso]

No. Einstein was definitely not wrong with Relativity. At worst we will need to add another term to his equation for particular conditions. In the ultimate solution Einstein's equations will be derived under certain conditions in the same way as Newton's equations are derived from Einstein's when some terms become trivial under some conditions.

There are far too many things dependent on and derived from Einstein's equations for it to be actually wrong per se.

Moreover Einstein's equations only deal with the velocities between zero and the speed of light. They are not applied to movement faster than the speed of light because they would then move into realm of complex numbers that require terms involving the square root of minus one.

Nothing in science actually precluds travel faster than the speed of light. It simply states that nothing with a non-zero rest mass can travel at the speed of light. Of course we normally expect something to first reach a speed before exceeding it. However Quantum Mechanics may allow something to be manifested with a speed exceeding the speed of light without first reaching it.

However don't expect this will ever allow ordinary things like human being to ever move faster than light.

At best this experiment has revealed the first interaction between Quantum Mechanics and Relativity, the two monumental centrepieces of our understanding of the Universe. This would be a huge advance.

Quantum Mechanics deals with the very small while Relativity deals with the very large and to date they have not revealed even a meagre relationship to each other. This had frustrated scientists for a century as they search for what is know in the industry as the Grand Unified Theory.

Lastly and most boringly, it could be that the whole thing is down to a very obscure experimental error. They have worked for three years to avoid evertyhing they can find and observers should note they are actually asking for help to find the problem because a finding that anything exceeded light speed is a huge step.

Previous measurements of the speed of Neutrinos over astronomical distances has not revealed any faster than light speeds.

[mightyWBA]

Of course it's possible....You Man United fans out there better make the most of your present glories...That's all I'm saying
;-)

[rov1100]

Whats a few nano-seconds either here or there?

[rov1100]

eg 1 nano-second is a billionth of a second.

[Postdog]

I see Star Trek and Stargate were mentioned, which makes me think is being in an unknown and possible dangerous situation without kacking your kegs also possible.

[Lie-in King]

Obviously, I'm constrained by the possibility of creating a paradoxical anomaly within the local space-time continuum, so all I can really say is that you'll notice that when last Saturday finally arrives, you'll be none the wiser!

I don't think it's giving too much away if I make a few oblique references, such as -

"Who knew? The Daily Mail! Well, they had a good run..." or

"He got a knighthood? Well that showed the 'Britain's Got Talent' judges..." or even

"CERN issues press statement - 'Nyah nyah, ROFL!'"

By the way - told you so...