speed = time travel

NoQuarter

Just thinking to myself here and thought id share!

I have just realised that theoretically, if humans had the ability and technology to travel faster than the speed of light (186,000 miles per second approx) the we could leave earth and travel to jupiter for instance (which takes 40 years for light to travel to from earth), land on jupiter, look back at earth and see ourselves leaving earth as we will reach jupiter before the light from earth does!

Any thoughts?

3DataModem

And then you could travel back at the same speed, and meet yourself half way.

There are several dozen / hundred books written covering this topic.

Mena

40 years for light from earth to get to Jupiter? I think your sums are a little off

The minimum distance from earth to Jupiter would be 0.0000621 light years or 365 million miles (minimum because it's off course not always the same distance away).

At least that's what I see it as...

NoQuarter

3DataModem wrote: »

And then you could travel back at the same speed, and meet yourself half way.

ooooh...:) never thought of that, have to think about that one though! Not sure if I understand that that would be true! Nice point though!

Mena wrote: »

40 years for light from earth to get to Jupiter? I think your sums are a little off

Not my sums, i just picked that figure up somewhere! You see my point though!

I think i may have heard it on one of the lectures on TED.com now that i think of it!

Mena

king-stew wrote: »

ooooh...:) never thought of that, have to think about that one though! Not sure if I understand that that would be true! Nice point though!



Not my sums, i just picked that figure up somewhere! You see my point though!

Yeah I do, and tbh, I'd not be surprised if my sums were off

riptide

king-stew wrote: »

ooooh...:) never thought of that, have to think about that one though! Not sure if I understand that that would be true! Nice point though!



Not my sums, i just picked that figure up somewhere! You see my point though!

I think i may have heard it on one of the lectures on TED.com now that i think of it!

So you are saying that Jupiter is 40 light years away? Our closest star (not the sun)Proxima Centauri is 4.2 light years away. :pac:

NoQuarter

riptide wrote: »

So you are saying that Jupiter is 40 light years away? Our closest star (not the sun)Proxima Centauri is 4.2 light years away. :pac:

Thats not at all what i said! What i said is right there in the post if youll read it.

Turtwig

king-stew wrote: »

Thats not at all what i said! What i said is right there in the post if youll read it.

What you said is confusing.

Wetbench4

But to go faster than light, would you not have to speed up time, or at least go outside our rate of time, and since our body needs time to work we would just die anyway, i think

FrostyJack

we could leave earth and travel to jupiter for instance (which takes 40 years for light to travel to from earth)

Thats not at all what i said! What i said is right there in the post if youll read it.

That is what the OP did say, it takes about 43 minutes for light to travel from Jupiter and Earth.

With regards time travel there are a few documentary's about the theory on youtube. Example :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbVUJZAn5ZM

Kevster

king-stew wrote: »

Just thinking to myself here and thought id share!

I have just realised that theoretically, if humans had the ability and technology to travel faster than the speed of light (186,000 miles per second approx) the we could leave earth and travel to jupiter for instance (which takes 40 years for light to travel to from earth), land on jupiter, look back at earth and see ourselves leaving earth as we will reach jupiter before the light from earth does!

Any thoughts?

...hadn't thought of that After reading your post though, I was waiting for the first reply to go on about how we can't go past the speed of light and such. There's always someone... .. *yawn* :pac:

ynotdu

3DataModem wrote: »

And then you could travel back at the same speed, and meet yourself half way.

There are several dozen / hundred books written covering this topic.

How many billions of years have thinking beings walked this planet but never met each other half way?:D

Seriously though the theory has been around a long time and is often a joke amongst Astronauts/cosmonauts{dont know about the Chinese tykonauts though,only jokes i get from there is xmas crackers!:)}

Sykk

riptide wrote: »

So you are saying that Jupiter is 40 light years away?

Well it took Cassini (Mission to saturn) 6 years 8 months and 16 days to reach saturn which is further from us than Jupiter. So I somehow doubt that Jupiter takes longer to reach.

With some further help of wikipedia and other sites! - Jupiters minimum distance from earth is 365 million miles.


-Sykk

Plug

Nothing travels faster than the speed even light not even itself. For example if you could cycle at the speed of light(186000 miles a second) and then you turn on the lamp at the front of it the light speed won't double, it won't travel.

The space shuttle is a time machine in its own right, when the astronauts come back they have travelled into the future a very very small amount however. But its true you can travel to the future but not come back to the past. Clocks in space are slower too, the clocks on satanav satellites need to be adjusted everyday!

There are theorys of going back in time but i don't think its going to happen, too much sh!t involved...


Op I don't think you had a think to yourself and came up with that theory yourself, did you watch Hawkings time travel the other night on natgeo like I did?:D

-Trek-

Could the human body even survive such speeds?

Plug

Yeah once the acceleration isn't too mad.

Wetbench4

Plug wrote: »

Clocks in space are slower too, the clocks on satanav satellites need to be adjusted everyday!

Does gravity it self slow down time?

I don't think the human body could survive at the speed of light because you have to think of how fast a signal travels through our nervous system. If a human is travelling at the speed of light, then how is their nervous system supposed to work at its usual lightening speed(relative to the bodies speed)!
Sorry if this makes no sense, it does in my head.:P

Sykk

Can I just pop in and ruin this by saying it's never going to be possible for a human to travel at the speed of light? :P

But theoretically if it was possible - I'm not sure, and don't know if anyone else is

-Nigel

Anchises

land on jupiter, look back at earth and see ourselves leaving earth as we will reach jupiter before the light from earth does

!

- then someone suggest you could 'meet' yourself on the way back (and possibly share a drink :{ )

I could accept a theoretical notion that you could look back and see yourself. But has anybody pointed out that what you would see would be a light emanation of what was there at some point. It would have no substance. It would simply be the light that was given off as you travelled past that point on your way out ?
It would not be, in any sense a meeting with yourself !

I think all talk of time travel is so much horse s**t , that ignores the immutable fact that there in only one 'now' .

A.

Wetbench4

Everything you see in the universe is just light emanating!