Time travel is possible – but only if you have an object with infinite mass

Phys.org ^ | Dec 13, 2018 | Gaurav Khanna

[ETL]

Time travel DOES happen all of the time. According to Einstein's Relativity, a clock in motion ticks out time more slowly than a stationary clock at your side. However, that clock would need to be traveling at speeds approaching that of light in order for the effects to be noticeable.

In other words, someone in a spacecraft traveling at a high rate of speed will actually have aged less than someone who remained behind on earth (stationary). This is assuming the traveler returns to earth. ie, returns to the same stationary reference frame as he started out. -ETL

[Migraine]

Infinite mass, eh? Piece of cake (no, actually, the whole cake, extra large).

If ifs and buts was candy and nuts, every day would be Christmas.

[Joe Brower]

Relativistic effects aside, as I understand it, if time travel requires an object of infinite mass, then time travel is therefore impossible because having an object of infinite mass is impossible. Not to mention slightly impractical...

On this topic, I always thought that if time travel were possible we would know about it already because it wouldn't matter when it was invented. < g!>

[Da Coyote]

Just don’t sit next to Michael Moore or you might be doomed to Groundhog day.

[Fido969]

Time travel is easy. I travel forward in time every day.

[blueunicorn6]

A time loop?

[blueunicorn6]

A time loop?

[Fido969]

A time loop?

[blueunicorn6]

A time loop?

[EvilCapitalist]

You live in one time zone, but travel to another for work?

[so_real]

Disagree :-) We perceive time only because the future is revealed to us one moment at a time. Our perception is limited to that of a character inside the story. If our point of view were changed, so as to have the perception of the reader or the author of the story, we could view it front to back --- or peek at the last chapter to see how it all ends. Time is meaningless to a character outside the story line. It is an artificial construct imposed on creatures having limited senses.

[buckalfa]

That made my brain hurt.

[thoughtomator]

This isn’t science. This is L. Ron Hubbard stuff.

[blueunicorn6]

Now you’re caught in my time loop.

Got any cards?

[EvilCapitalist]

I thought you just needed a flux capacitor hooked up to your delorean, and to get it up to 88 mph?

[fwdude]

I think physicists carry things to an irrational extrapolation sometimes. They think that if change happens between A and B at a certain rate, then the same rate of change happens between B and Z, when that doesn’t necessarily follow.

[Jolla]

but only if you have an object with infinite mass

Did once upon a time, got a divorce.

[Fiji Hill]

I’d like to travel to 2020 and return with a copy of the Wall Street Journal.

[neverevergiveup]

There have been times when I’ve been at a mass that went on so long it seemed infinite.

[OttawaFreeper]

I grew up watching Doctor Who (Tom Baker and Jon Pertwee) and that certainly gave an introduction to time travel. However, I also recall the episode of “Galactica 1980” where the two protagonists (Troy and Dillon) went back to the 1940s to stop a rogue agent (connected to the Cylons, of course) from giving the Nazis the secret to the atomic bomb. I remember the neat effects they showed about traveling at the speed of light.