Tag Archives: time travel evidence

Interior view of the Fermi particle accelerator with its large orange beamline and surrounding machinery.

Evidence of time travel to the future (time dilation)

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When we talk about time travel to the future, in scientific terms we are talking about time dilation. What is time dilation? It is a scientific fact that time moves slower for any mass accelerated near the speed of light. If that mass were a clock, for example, the hands of the clock would appear to be moving slower than a clock in the hand of an observer at rest. That phenomenon is termed time dilation. Below are the classic experiments that have demonstrated time travel to the future (time dilation) is real.

Velocity time dilation experimental evidence:

Rossi and Hall (1941) compared the population of cosmic-ray-produced muons at the top of a six-thousand-foot-high mountain to muons observed at sea level. A muon is a subatomic particle with a negative charge and about two hundred times more massive than an electron. Muons occur naturally when cosmic rays (energetic-charged subatomic particles, like protons, originating in outer space) interact with the atmosphere. Muons, at rest, disintegrate in about 2 x 10-6 seconds. The mountain chosen by Rossi and Hall was high. The muons should have mostly disintegrated before they reached the ground. Therefore, extremely few muons should have been detected at ground level, versus the top of the mountain. However, their experimental results indicated the muon sample at the base experienced only a moderate reduction. The muons were decaying approximately ten times slower than if they were at rest. They made use of Einstein’s time dilation effect to explain this discrepancy. They attributed the muon’s high speed, with its associated high kinetic energy, to be dilating time.

In 1963, Frisch and Smith once again confirmed the Rossi and Hall experiment, proving beyond doubt that extremely high kinetic energy prolongs a particle’s life.

With the advent of particle accelerators that are capable of moving particles at near light speed, the confirmation of time dilation has become routine. A particle accelerator is a scientific apparatus for accelerating subatomic particles to high velocities by using electric or electromagnetic fields. The largest particle accelerator is the Large Hadron Collider, completed in 2008.

In 1977, J. Bailey and CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) colleagues accelerated muons to within 0.9994% of the speed of light and found their lifetime had been extended by 29.3 times their corresponding rest mass lifetime. (Reference: Bailey, J., et al., Nature 268, 301 [1977] on muon lifetimes and time dilation.) This experiment confirmed the “twin paradox,” whereby a twin makes a journey into space in a near-speed-of-light spaceship and returns home to find he has aged less than his identical twin who stayed on Earth. This means that clocks sent away at near the speed of light and returned near the speed of light to their initial position demonstrate retardation (record less time) with respect to a resting clock.

Gravitational time dilation experimental evidence:

In 1959, Pound and Rebka measured a slight redshift in the frequency of light emitted close to the Earth’s surface (where Earth’s gravitational field is higher), versus the frequency of light emitted at a distance farther from the Earth’s surface. The results they measured were within 10% of those predicted by the gravitational time dilation of general relativity.

In 1964, Pound and Snider performed a similar experiment, and their measurements were within 1% predicted by general relativity.

In 1980, the team of Vessot, Levine, Mattison, Blomberg, Hoffman, Nystrom, Farrel, Decher, Eby, Baugher, Watts, Teuber, and Wills published “Test of Relativistic Gravitation with a Space-Borne Hydrogen Maser,” and increased the accuracy of measurement to about 0.01%. In 2010, Chou, Hume, Rosenband, and Wineland published “Optical Clocks and Relativity.” This experiment confirmed gravitational time dilation at a height difference of one meter using optical atomic clocks, which are considered the most accurate types of clocks.

This information is from my new book, How to Time Travel, available in both a Kindle and paperback edition on Amazon. To browse the book free and read the reviews click here: How to Time Travel.

Black and white image of people in vintage clothing, one person wearing a patterned outfit and a hat.

Time Travel Anecdotal Evidence from the Internet

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This post is based on material from chapter 2 of my new book, How to Time Travel.

Let us start with a word of caution. Anecdotal evidence is not scientific evidence. It may be bogus, and all anecdotal evidence should be treated with skepticism. However, the sheer volume of time travel anecdotal evidence on the internet makes it hard to ignore. For example, if you do an Internet search with Google using the keyword phase “time travel evidence” (without the quotes), you will get about 258,000,000 search returns. Most of the evidence falls into three categories:

  1. Old movie clips: There are a number of YouTube videos of old movies showing people using devices, such as a cell phone, that would not have existed when the movie was made.
  1. Old photographs: Many sites include old photographs that show people out of context, for example, wearing clothing that does not fit the time, such as modern sunglasses, or using devices, such as a 35mm camera, that did not exist at the time the photograph was taken.
  1. Archaeological finds: There are archaeological finds of modern devices, such as a one-hundred-year-old Swiss-made watch found in a four-hundred-year-old Ming dynasty tomb in Shangsi County, Guangxi, in southern China.

Let us examine one piece of anecdotal evidence, from category 1, old movie clips. One example that comes up numerous times is Charlie Chaplin’s 1928 film The Circus, featuring a woman who appears to be talking on her cell phone. Just do a YouTube search using the keyword phrase “time travel evidence Chaplin film” (without the quotes). You will get back about a 100,000 search returns. The first page or two of search results have clips of this video, typically with some commentary.

Debunkers argue that the woman was just holding a primitive hearing aid known as an ear trumpet. Surprisingly, a 1928-ear trumpet looks like a cell phone from a distance. Proponents dismiss this as an explanation because the woman is talking into it. However, you see some people talking aloud to themselves all the time. This does not mean they are crazy. This is just how they process information and think. Almost all of us talk to ourselves privately in our minds. It is called thinking. Does this explain the film clip? Obviously, this explanation does not satisfy everyone.

Where does this leave us regarding time travel evidence from the Internet? In a phrase, it leaves us on “shaky ground.” I examined only one of the most popular pieces of time travel evidence on the Internet, and it is far from conclusive. Evidence that is more conclusive may lie buried in the 258,000,000 Google search returns for the keyword phrase “time travel evidence.” The challenge is finding it. A true scholarly effort would likely take a lifetime. However, in my opinion, the real world, and the universe, is stranger than any work of fiction. Therefore, I am keeping an open mind.

Remember, at the beginning of this article I clearly stated that anecdotal evidence is not scientific evidence. However, I also stated the sheer volume of time travel anecdotal evidence on the internet makes it hard to ignore. Is this an example of real time travel evidence caught on film? I suggest you do the Google search, view the clip and make up your own mind.

A silhouette of a person with a blank face in front of a large clock, set against a swirling cosmic background.

How to Time Travel: Explore the Science, Paradoxes, and Evidence

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Here is the entire introduction from my new book, How to Time Travel. Enjoy!

Introduction

Few subjects evoke more emotion than time travel, the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Humankind’s fascination with time travel dates back thousands of years. Although there is no consensus recognizing which written work was the first to discuss time travel, many scholars argue that the Mahabharata, from Hindu mythology, is the first, dating between 700 BCE (Before the Common/Current/Christian Era) and 300 CE (Common/Current/Christian Era). The Mahabharata, which is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, relates the story of King Revaita, who travels to heaven to meet the deity Brahma. When King Revaita returns to Earth, he is shocked to learn that many ages have passed. In today’s science, we would assert King Revaita experienced time dilation.

What is time dilation? It is a scientific fact that time moves slower for any mass accelerated near the speed of light. If that mass were a clock, for example, the hands of the clock would appear to be moving slower than a clock in the hand of an observer at rest. That phenomenon is termed time dilation. If King Revaita used a spaceship capable of speeds near the speed of light to visit Brahma, a roundtrip journey that would appear to King Revaita to take one year would result in a time passage of thirty years on Earth. This may seem like science fiction, but time dilation is a well-established, experimentally verified aspect of Einstein’s special theory of relativity; more about this later.

Arguably, the greatest single written work that laid the foundation to fire the imagination of today’s generation regarding time travel is H. G. Wells’s classic novel, The Time Machine, published in 1895. It has inspired numerous popular movies, television programs, novels, and short stories. Why are we humans so obsessed with time travel? It appears to be an innate longing. How many times have you wished that you could go back to a specific point in time and select a different action? We all do it. Consider the number of times you have replayed a specific situation in your mind. Psychologists tell us we replay an event in our minds when the outcome is not finished to our satisfaction. This has accounted for numerous nights of tossing and turning. Another common need is to seek answers to important questions from a firsthand perspective. Perhaps you would like to be a witness during the resurrection of Christ, or be a witness behind the grassy knoll during the Kennedy assassination. Perhaps you miss a loved one who has passed on, and you would like to go back in time to embrace that loved one again.

Some of us also dream about time travel to the future. What outcomes will result from our decisions? Imagine the prosperity and happiness that could be ours if we were able to travel to the future. We would be able to witness the outcome of any decision, return to the present, and guide our lives accordingly. Picking the right profession or choosing the right mate would be a certainty. We could ensure there would be no missteps in our life. A life of leisure and prosperity would be ours for the taking.

It is little wonder that many people ask this deceptively simple question: Is time travel possible? The majority of the scientific community, including myself, says a resounding yes. The theoretical foundation for time travel, based on the solutions to Einstein’s equations of relativity, is widely accepted by the scientific community. The next question, which is the most popular question, is how to time travel. Of all the questions in science, the keyword phrase “how to time travel” is close to the top of Internet search engine searches. According to Google, the largest search engine in the world, there are 2,240,000 worldwide monthly searches for the keyword phrase “how to time travel,” as of this writing. Unfortunately, it is the most difficult question to answer.

Obviously, interest in time travel is high, and what people want to know most is how to time travel. This high interest, combined with the intriguing real science behind time travel, is what inspired me to write this book.

At this point, I would like to set your expectations. We are going to embark on a marvelous journey. We will examine the real science of time travel, the theoretical foundation that has most of the scientific community united that time travel is possible. We will also examine the obstacles to time travel, and there are many. However, even in the face of all the obstacles, most of the scientific community agrees it is theoretically possible to time travel. The largest issue in time travel is not the theoretical science. It is the engineering. Highly trained theoretical physicists understand the theoretical science of time travel. However, taking the theory and building a time machine capable of human time travel has proved a formidable engineering task. It has not been done, but we are amazingly close. We have already built time machines capable of sending subatomic particles into the future. If you will pardon the pun, it is just a matter of time before we engineer our way through the time travel barrier and enable human time travel.

In setting your expectations, I promise you significant insight into the real science of time travel and an equally incredible insight into the obstacles to time travel. I cannot promise that with this knowledge you will be able to overcome the obstacles and engineer how to time travel. However, you may be the one person destined to harness the science, glean the engineering simplicity, and journey in time. There is only one way to find out, namely, read on.

To browse the book free on Amazon, click this link: http://amzn.to/1dWyEkp

Close-up of an ornate clock face with Roman numerals illuminated by a warm golden light.

Check Out My Huff Post Blog Article, “Time Travel to the Future Is Real”

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Click on the link below to read the Huff Post Science Article:

“Time Travel to the Future Is Real”

– Physicist Louis Del Monte discusses time travel to the future, including time dilation and time travel experimental evidence in this Huffington Post article.