The big question we have all faced and fantasised about is whether it is scientifically possible to ever travel back in time.
Well to put things in short terms… no, we cannot at present time, it is impossible today however there is a theory that time travel is indeed plausible.
I’m no scientist, but I’ve listened to physicists and it seems in the laws of physics a key element of making time travel possible is something called negative energy.
Well, what is negative energy and how could it transport us back in time?
In a nutshell, positive masses attract each other while a negative mass causes gravity to become a repulsive force.
In a National Geographic documentary filmed in 2009, astronautics engineer and space spokesperson, Louis Freidman PhD, said: “We may be as far from reaching other stars as Leonardo da Vinci was from realising an aeroplane.”
“He had the idea but it took another 400 years before that began flight” Freidman explained.
The real key theorem to time travel is wormholes in space.
Despite having an unattractive name, these wormholes could essentially teleport you from one part of the universe to another and possibly trigger time travel.
In the same National Geographic documentary, Physicist Sean Carroll PhD, said: “You could actually not only end up in a different part of space by going through the wormhole, but you could also end up in the past.”
Although such theories are science fiction now, the mathematics behind them are true, suggesting there is a possibility it could work.
It was Albert Einstein who cooked up the theory of relativity in 1916 that launched the possibility that wormholes could exist.
Linking wormholes back to negative energy and Einstein’s relativity theory, wormholes essentially allow you to travel faster than the speed of light in a kind of space-time shortcut across the universe.
Wormholes are not to be confused with black holes which are much scarier as they trap everything within them.
The major difference between the two is that you can get out of a wormhole but could end up anywhere, whereas if you were sucked into a black hole, you are forever trapped in the unknown abyss.
Very cheery, I know.
There is a theory that if time travel were possible, when you travel back in time to say 100 years in the past, that past is now your future.
That would mean it is not the same universe, but it’s now what would be described as a ‘multiverse’.
No, I’ve not watched too many Marvel films, if that’s what you’re thinking.
The multiverse is a genuine theory.
For example, if I want to go back in time to save someone like Martin Luther King from assassination, I would apparently be saving someone else’s Martin Luther King rather than the Martin Luther King from my universe.
Therefore, you may be able to travel in time but there is a possibility you will completely disappear from the previous and original universe you were from.
The key to time travel, then, seems to be creating a bridge between two universes through a wormhole using negative energy.
Negative energy is what stops the wormhole from collapsing and allows one to travel through it.
Michio Kaku a theoretical physicist and professor at The City College of New York, said: “When you go backwards in time, the river of time forks into two rivers.”
Essentially that means you go back in time but end up in another universe.
Kaku also explains a similar example with Abraham Lincoln’s assassination as I have explained with Martin Luther King.
You aren’t saving the person from your universe – you are saving that person in a different universe from yours.
It is very interesting, but essentially it may be impossible to travel back in time to your own universe, which births the whole multiverse theory.
In a way, if this were possible it would be almost like playing God; testing out different scenario outcomes of what the world would be like in different universes.
If you altered time but essentially your universe stays the same, others do not, creating a multiverse of different historical outcomes from the ones we know today.
That would only be possible, however, if one could jump between different universes and through time freely with ease by using these wormholes.
It’s a discussion that definitely should be saved when talking to the relevant scientists.
So, overall, time travel may be possible and the math seems to be all there.
Wormholes have not been proven to exist although some scientists believe they could be out there floating around in deep space.
What do you think?
Also, if my science lingo is a bit off, just remember I’m no scientist.
But I advise everyone who has read this to go and watch some clips of Michio Kaku explaining this theory – it is beyond interesting.
Got any comments?
Leave them down below and tell me what you think about these theories.
Feature Image Credit: WIRED YouTube