Scientist develop viable time machine model which might make time travel a reality
A US scientist has developed a mathematical model for a viable time machine – an advance that could bring stuff of popular science-fiction closer to reality. Ever since HG Wells published his book ‘Time Machine’ in 1885, people have been curious about time travel – and scientists have worked to solve or disprove the theory.
In 1915, German scientist Albert Einstein announced his theory of general relativity, stating that gravitational fields are caused by distortions in the fabric of space and time. More than 100 years later, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration – an international team of physics institutes and research groups – announced the detection of gravitational waves generated by colliding black holes billions of lightyears away, confirming Einstein’s theory. The division of space into three dimensions, with time in a separate dimension by itself, is incorrect, said Tippett. The four dimensions should be imagined simultaneously, where different directions are connected, as a space-time continuum.
Ben Tippett, from University of British Columbia in Canada, used math and physics to create a formula that describes a method for time travel. “People think of time travel as something as fiction. And we tend to think it’s not possible because we don’t actually do it. But, mathematically, it is possible,” said Tippett.
Using Einstein’s theory, Tippett said that the curvature of space-time accounts for the curved orbits of the planets. In “flat” space-time, planets and stars would move in straight lines. In the vicinity of a massive star, space-time geometry becomes curved and the straight trajectories of nearby planets will follow the curvature and bend around star. “The time direction of the space-time surface also shows curvature. There is evidence showing the closer to a black hole we get, time moves slower,” said Tippett. “My model of a time machine uses the curved space-time to bend time into a circle for the passengers, not in a straight line. That circle takes us back in time,” he said.
