Time Travel

Time travel is the concept of travelling forward and backward to different points in time, much as we do through space.

Humans are in fact always travelling in time - in a linear fashion, from the present to the immediate future, inexorably, until death. Some theories, most notably special and general relativity, suggest that suitable geometries of spacetime, or certain types of motion in space, may allow time travel into the past and future if these geometries or motions are possible. It has been confirmed that the effects of relativistic and gravitational time dilation can cause a traveller who starts at and returns to a point of origin that remains stationary, to arrive at a time farther in the future in that reference frame than their subjective elapsed time would indicate (a constrained form of time travel into the future).

In physics, the concept of time travel has been often used to examine the consequences of physical theories such as special relativity, general relativity and quantum mechanics. There is no experimental evidence of time travel, and it is not even well understood whether (let alone how) the current physical theories permit any kind of time travel. Although theories do exist about the possibility of folding time to hop from one point to another

Often it is a plot device used in science fiction and many movies and television shows to set a character in a particular time not their own, and explore the character's interaction with the people and technology of that time - as a kind of culture shock. Other ramifications explored are change and reactions to it, parallel universes, and alternative history where some little event took place or did not take place, but causes large changes in the future.

Famous fictional time machines include the TARDIS from the long-running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and the titular time machine of H. G. Wells's novel. On film there were the modified Delorean of the Back to the Future trilogy, the telephone booth of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, the space-time portal of Army of Darkness and at least the first three Planet of the Apes movies.

Other books, films and series which feature time travel are A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain, Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek: First Contact, the Terminator series, La Jetée, 12 Monkeys, Primer, Futurama, and Quantum Leap.

Fictional time travel even exists in the medium of video games, such as Time Pilot, Chrono Trigger, The Journeyman Project, Blinx, Viewtiful Joe, Prince of Persia and Timesplitters.

Resources about Time Travel

NOVA Online | Time Travel
Leading physicists delve into the mystery of whether time travel is possible, and if so, how one might go about building a time machine.

Time Travel and Paradox
When one reads Science Fiction there is hardly anything so fascinating and yet so frustrating as the 'Time Travel' story. Fascinating, because it often explores the question 'what would things have been like if...?" or "if one could change...

Quantum time waits for no cosmos
Physicists have long puzzled over the fact that two distinct "arrows of time" both point in the same direction. In the everyday world, things wear out...

The time travel page
Every day, twenty-four hours a day, we all travel through time...in the direction of the future...

What is Time travel
Time travel is the concept of traveling forward and backward to different points in time, much as we do through space.

Time travel paradoxes and science fiction
Is time travel physically possible or logically possible? looking at ideas from science fiction and time travel paradoxes.

Experiments on the change of the direction and rate of time motion by Vadim A. Chernobrov
It is known that the first experimental study of physical properties of Time were made by professor N.A.Kozyrev, who wrote some papers on causal or asymmetrical mechanics.

Time Travel
There is an interesting energetic field created when I focus on the reality of time travel.

TIME TRAVEL: Shaping the Future by Neil Johnson
Learn about the possibilities of time travel with BBCi's guide to space exploration.

Space-Time Physics and the Future of Time Travel by Alex MacLellan
Human beings have always tried to explain the world around them. They have worked to organize it, to measure it, and to understand it. These efforts at understanding such basic concepts as space and time and light have led to many discoveries.

Time Travel Visiting the Past
Nobody has ever built a time machine that could take a person back to an earlier time. Nobody should be seriously trying to build one, either, because a good argument exists for why the machine can never be built.

Time Travel [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]
Time travel is a fairly new topic of scientific and philosophical investigation. In science, different models of the cosmos and the natural laws governing the universe imply different possibilities for time travel.