Spacetime And Speed of Light - Mind bending

[Psycho P and the Freight Train]

Warning. Crazy crazy crazy existential physics shit coming up.

So, time is the most interesting concept I can possibly think of. Time exists. It is not just some man-made concept. And not only that, but time and space are superimposed on each other. Now that is fascinating.

Let's say you were in a train that was traveling around the earth at a speed very close to the speed of light (only light can match the speed of light). Let's say you spent a week in that train. You might come step off to find that the world has aged 100 years while you have aged only a week. So theoretically, using high speeds, you can travel into the "future." But you cannot travel into the past. Scientists have theorized that it might be possible using a wormhole, but pragmatically, you couldn't find one large enough for a human to fit in or one that would stay around for more than a nano-second.

Now let's talk about space-time.

Everything in the universe is going at the same speed. But depending on one's velocity, you could be traveling more through space or more through time.

Picture a graph with an X and Y axis. X axis represents physical movement through space. Y axis represents movement through time. Let's say upwards is the future and downwards is the past.

If you are sitting perfectly still, you are not moving along the X axis. You ARE moving upwards on the Y axis though. Let's say you stand up and start walking. Your arrow on the Y axis has now shifted so that it is no longer moving straight up in a straight line. It is pointed slightly to the side. So, now you are moving more slowly through time since you are moving faster through space. Crazy right?

Now, light is interesting. Light is moving in a straight arrow along the X axis. This is why nothing can surpass this speed because you cannot make that horizontal arrow any straighter.

But yeah, I cannot take any credit for that explanation, although I did paraphrase it in my own words. I wish I could credit the person who made me understand it this way, but they were literally an anonymous poster.

Thoughts? Anyone need a bandaid for their brain?

[Sinister Intents]

Ummm I'll get back to this :) intetesting

[Loony Le Fist]

...

So, time is the most interesting concept I can possibly think of. Time exists. It is not just some man-made concept. And not only that, but time and space are superimposed on each other. Now that is fascinating.


Crazy isn't it? The empirical data is impressive!



Let's say you were in a train that was traveling around the earth at a speed very close to the speed of light (only light can match the speed of light). Let's say you spent a week in that train. You might come step off to find that the world has aged 100 years while you have aged only a week. So theoretically, using high speeds, you can travel into the "future." But you cannot travel into the past.


Yes! Also, gravitational fields accelerate the passage of time for those in the influence of it. When you are in an aircraft, you age slower than on the ground. This has been proven by actually performing this experiment with two identical (as near as possible through duplication) atomic clocks, placing one in an aircraft and the other on the ground. GPS wouldn't work in it's current form, if this was not the case. Incredible, isn't it?



Scientists have theorized that it might be possible using a wormhole, but pragmatically, you couldn't find one large enough for a human to fit in or one that would stay around for more than a nano-second.


Yea, bummer. One idea is to create a small one then drag one of the endpoints to a time and place further in the future using relativistic effects. In that case, time machines cannot go back to a past before they were invented. If that makes sense. That would seem rather arbitrary, but then again, we have an uncanny way of making the universe respond to us. :grin:

Of course, this is all hypothetical at this point.



Now let's talk about space-time.

Everything in the universe is going at the same speed. But depending on one's velocity, you could be traveling more through space or more through time.


Never heard it put that way before. I like it. :grin:



Picture a graph with an X and Y axis. X axis represents physical movement through space. Y axis represents movement through time. Let's say upwards is the future and downwards is the past.

If you are sitting perfectly still, you are not moving along the X axis. You ARE moving upwards on the Y axis though. Let's say you stand up and start walking. Your arrow on the Y axis has now shifted so that it is no longer moving straight up in a straight line. It is pointed slightly to the side. So, now you are moving more slowly through time since you are moving faster through space. Crazy right?




Now, light is interesting. Light is moving in a straight arrow along the X axis. This is why nothing can surpass this speed because you cannot make that horizontal arrow any straighter.


Very much so. No matter how fast you accelerate towards photons, in a complete vacuum, they will always measure the same speed to you. Exactly 299,792,458 m/s as defined.

[Jemdet Nasr]

I'd just like to point out that light is not the only thing which moves at the speed of light. Photons are massless (usually), and a better term for the lightspeed constant would be the "speed of massless particles". So, if you could find some way to lose all of your mass, you too, could travel at lightspeed.

Also, if you're interested in these sorts of facts, I've got another one for you: a positron (antielectron) looks exactly like an electron traveling backwards through time.

[Psycho P and the Freight Train]

Crazy isn't it? The empirical data is impressive!



Yes! Also, gravitational fields accelerate the passage of time for those in the influence of it. When you are in an aircraft, you age slower than on the ground. This has been proven by actually performing this experiment with two identical (as near as possible through duplication) atomic clocks, placing one in an aircraft and the other on the ground. GPS wouldn't work in it's current form, if this was not the case. Incredible, isn't it?



Yea, bummer. One idea is to create a small one then drag one of the endpoints to a time and place further in the future using relativistic effects. In that case, time machines cannot go back to a past before they were invented. If that makes sense. That would seem rather arbitrary, but then again, we have an uncanny way of making the universe respond to us. :grin:

Of course, this is all hypothetical at this point.



Never heard it put that way before. I like it. :grin:





Very much so. No matter how fast you accelerate towards photons, in a complete vacuum, they will always measure the same speed to you. Exactly 299,792,458 m/s as defined.

Ahh yes I forgot about gravity! That is a good point especially about the atomic clocks. I imagine that is why gravity is so mysterious. It literally warps space-time. Most extreme example being a black hole.

But yeah traveling into the past is….well… I don't know how to feel about it. I wonder how it would even affect things. It's nearly impossible to avoid paradoxes. But I don't think traveling to the past will ever be achieved. If so, why did Hitler exist, right? Shouldn't we be living in either a perfect world or a dictatorship with just one person ruling over everyone like some kind of Darth Sidious shit? Who knows :grin:


I'd just like to point out that light is not the only thing which moves at the speed of light. Photons are massless (usually), and a better term for the lightspeed constant would be the "speed of massless particles". So, if you could find some way to lose all of your mass, you too, could travel at lightspeed.

Also, if you're interested in these sorts of facts, I've got another one for you: a positron (antielectron) looks exactly like an electron traveling backwards through time.

You're absolutely right but isn't light made up of photons? But yeah that is true. Although light is actually effected by gravity, so doesn't that mean it must have mass? And oh yeah I have heard of positrons briefly. I am definitely interested in those kind of facts. :lol:

[Remus Bleys]

Did you get really high and think Hey, this sounds okay, not like I'm going to have to do any reading on scientific facts or anything because this sounds pretty rad mann
pic related

[Psycho P and the Freight Train]

Did you get really high and think Hey, this sounds okay, not like I'm going to have to do any reading on scientific facts or anything because this sounds pretty rad mann
pic related

You have successfully tapped into the madness that is my brain. Congrats!

[Loony Le Fist]

...
But yeah traveling into the past is….well… I don't know how to feel about it. I wonder how it would even affect things. It's nearly impossible to avoid paradoxes. But I don't think traveling to the past will ever be achieved. If so, why did Hitler exist, right? Shouldn't we be living in either a perfect world or a dictatorship with just one person ruling over everyone like some kind of Darth Sidious shit? Who knows :grin:


Sometimes I wonder what the result would be if so many different people with different ideas travelled to the past trying to change or fix things that it actually ends up no different. :grin:

[Loony Le Fist]

Did you get really high and think Hey, this sounds okay, not like I'm going to have to do any reading on scientific facts or anything because this sounds pretty rad mann
pic related

I'm curious to hear which of the scientific facts brought up were presented inaccurately.

[Jemdet Nasr]

I'm curious to hear which of the scientific facts brought up were presented inaccurately.

i don't think it's that they were inaccurate per se, it's just that all of this is a very layperson/pothead science thread.

[Loony Le Fist]

i don't think it's that they were inaccurate per se, it's just that all of this is a very layperson/pothead science thread.

I've never heard of pothead science. Is it like experiments performed while scientists are stoned? :grin:

I'm actually rather convinced Richard Feynman probably did a lot of it then. :laugh: