The chance of journeying forward or backward in time has been the
subject of sci-fi books and movies for some time. It seems an excellent
idea, but a team of Chinese scientists recently made a discovery that
could dash any dreams of traveling in time.
Quickest thing in the universe is light
For a while, many readers and writers have been fascinated by
the possibility of traveling in time. Authors including Mark Twain,
Jules Verne and Kurt Vonnegut have all produced classic works that
involve man traveling through time. It seems the chance of traveling
through time is too small to even comprehend and will not be changing
anytime soon. Time reports that there was a team of physicists in China
that did a study that showed that individual particles of light don't
travel as quickly as light does making traveling in time as far as we
understand it extremely hard. The findings were published, according to
Discovery, in Physical Review Letters, an American peer-reviewed
scientific journal.
Study debunks faster-than-light particles
The study the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
researchers copied was done over 10 years back. The original study
claimed to have found that light was slower than light particles, or
photons. The speed of the photons and waves of light were reviewed by
Dr. Shengwang Du, according to BBC. He wanted to see if the light went
faster than the photons themselves. They shot photons through a vapor
held at near absolute zero, the coldest temperature possible. The
conditions didn’t affect anything. The photons still went the same
speed as the optical precursors. The particles and sub-particles went
fast still. It was not faster than the speed of light though. In the
study, it showed that Einstein was indeed correct in the “traffic law”
of the universe in the speed of light. E=MC2 still believes in C.
Other ideas out there
Nothing is faster than the speed of light which is the speed
limit of the universe, this test shows. Faster than the speed of light
would mean traveling in time, Einstein believes, as shown in the theory
of general relativity that shows a person to go faster in time when
closer to the speed of light. Going faster than the speed of light is
impossible, as has become proved. Time travel is still achievable.
There are other things to consider. The concept of a “wormhole” in
space that opens between two points in time still exists and may make
traveling in time possible. It is feasible, although none have been
confirmed to exist.
Citations
Time:
Herald Sun:
Discovery:
BBC:
