Jake Mckeegan

What is Time Dilation (speed version)

Time Dilation is time travel. No Sci-Fi, no jokes, real time travel. Time Dilation was an idea invented by Albert Einstein in his famous “Theory of Relativity”. Time Dilation is part of “Space-Time”. Time Dilation states that the faster an object moves, the slower time is experienced for that object. Time Dilation effects are exponential and also works at high gravity.

How to build a time machine (speed version)

 Time machines are easy. Anytime we move, we are traveling through time. But, Time dilation effects only get noticeable at high percentages of the speed of light. Here’s the problem, to travel back in time, you would have to go faster than the speed of light (or at least that’s what some people think)  or you would need to go a lot slower than the object you wish to go back in time to.

Why haven’t we built a time machine yet?

Your probably thinking, “If all of the smartest scientists are thinking if it, why haven’t any of them built it yet?”, well the answer to that question is: Time Dilation. Another effect of Time Dilation is that the faster you go, the more you weigh. For example, let’s say you were carrying a ten kilogram weight and weren’t moving at all. It would weigh ten kilograms. But, if you were traveling at 99.5% of the speed of light, it would weigh 100kg. As you probably know, mass is the enemy of speed, and as you go faster, Time Dilation effects grow exponentially. So the closer you get to the speed of light, the more power you need to push it. Because of this, to travel at the speed of light, if you had any mass you would have infinite mass, and infinite mass would require infinite energy to move. That’s why we haven’t built a time machine yet.

Cool facts and calculations (speed verion) 

If you traveled at 0.99999999999999% of the speed of light, for every day passed on board, 19,380.535 years would pass for a stationary observer.

Light (photons) have no mass.

In a vacuum, light travels at 299,792,458 m/s.

If you were to ride on light, assuming it travels at the speed of light, over 100 light years, you would experience no passing of time. This is because of Time Dilation.

Some things that people think might go faster than the speed of light include: wormholes, warp drives, and tachyons.

My time machine (speed version)

If I were to build a time machine, I would do so like this. I would make a raindrop-shaped spaceship out of graphene, then I would take a smooth and light machine that takes light and heat and turns it into energy, and put that as a covering for my spaceship. Next at the back, I would add a electric-powered engine, powered by the front of the rocket. After that I would find something with negative mass (a theoretical concept in physics) and use that to subtract all of the mass. Next I would use some of the energy to freeze the people on board to absolute zero (this would require a certain medicine to be viable). That is my time machine.

Short intro to gravity time dilation

Gravity time dilation states that under high gravity, time slows down. This means that in places with high gravity such as black holes, time goes slower. Most rules for speed time dilation also apply to gravity time dilation, but with a different cause.

Cool facts and calculations (gravity version)

The equivalent of the speed of light in gravity for time dilation, assuming the same distance to the center as Jupiter, is: 4.7069 * 10^34 kg, or:    470,690,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg.

If you were on a higher gravity than the number above, you would travel back in time (again, that’s a theory, not a definite yes).

Standing on the surface of the Earth, you experience around 0.0219 less seconds in a year than a stationary observer.

A black hole called TON 618 (the heaviest black hole so far identified) weighs an estimated 66 billion solar masses (a solar mass is equal to about  2 * 10^30 kg, or 4.4 * 10^30 lbs. That’s enough to (theoretically) travel back in time.

TON 618 is approximately 10.8 billion light years from Earth.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Time Travel is a really cool, complex, and, i’ll admit, confusing thing to learn about. Time Travel is directly tied to Time Dilation and is a really cool thing to study. Thanks for reading!