Tadgear's Articles #4: Times to Travel

In Article 4 of this series, it is time to discuss real world scenarios similar to one of the most popular ideas in science-fiction, time travel. It turns out, it may not all be myth.

Time travel has existed throughout all of media, whether in movies, TV shows, video games, books, and so on. The idea of controlling one of the most powerful factors of our universe is very enticing indeed. Fixing your past, seeing your fate, it all gives of an aura of curiosity and possibility. If only it was real. Actually, it may be. This article is going to be talking about two ideas that could be considered "time manipulation". First, time dilation, and second, time crystals.

Time dilation is very simple. The faster you move, the faster time moves around you. Specifically, the closer one gets to the speed of light, the slower their perception of time gets. This, in theory, can lead to time travelling into the future. While it may not be instant, it is intriguing nonetheless. Despite this being theoretically possible though, none of our current technology can have a substantial enough effect to create any noticeable progress to the goal. To do so, our technology would have to be able to travel at speeds 30% the speed of light (University of Mississippi). Even then, the effect would be minimal, taking ten years to travel half a year into the future (University of Mississippi). The rate that time dilates compared to speed increases exponentially (University of Mississippi). For example, travelling at 90% the speed of light will allow time around you to move just barely twice as fast (University of Mississippi). Bring that up to 95%, and now time travels around you over three times as fast (University of Mississippi). If you want to know more about this relationship, there is a graph in the link below that is related to time dilation.

So how fast have we gotten? How close are we to this goal? The Guinness World Records state that the fastest moving object ever was the Helios 2, travelling at a speed of 221, 232 mph (Hollingum 2016). That is .03% the speed of light. It is quite disappointing, so time travel is far from the realm of commercial use. At least its possible.

The second topic here is time crystals. Similar to plasma, this is yet another newly discovered form of matter to add to the solids, liquids, and gases of our world (Sanders 2017). What makes this type of matter special is its unique property. Solids that are crystals are called such because they have consistent patterns in terms of space (Sanders 2017). Time crystals though, have patterns which are consistent in terms of time (Sanders 2017). Due to this consistency in time, these special crystals are constantly off-balanced in terms of physics and energy (Sanders 2017). This is where time manipulation comes in as these crystals seem to possess the traits of a time loop. They have patterns that repeat in time, meaning for them, time repeats itself over, and over, and over again. Sadly though, these crystals are antibiotic material, so it is unknown how to give the same effective to living matter. One never knows though what can be discovered in the future.

In the end, we are a long way from messing with our lives in unknown ways. It's all possible, maybe just not in our time. There can be hope though, that one day, technology like this can help improve our standard of living and conquest for the unknown. May knowledge allow this technology to one day exist, and may we all pursue for these goals of a better future.

Sources:

Hollingum, B. (7 July, 2016). NASA’s Juno Probe Recognized by Guinness World Records as Fastest Ever Spacecraft - Updated. Guinness World Records. Retrieved from guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2016/7/nasa%E2%80%99s-juno-probe-recognised-by-guinness-world-records-as-fastest-ever-spacecraft.

Sanders, R. (26 January, 2017). Scientists Unveil New Form of Matter: Time Crystals. Berkeley News. Retrieved from news.berkeley.edu/2017/01/26/scientists-unveil-new-form-of-matter-time-crystals/.

University of Mississippi. Time Dilation. Quarknet. Retrieved from phy.olemiss.edu/HEP/QuarkNet/time.html.

Author's Note

Sources in APA