Time Travel

Time travel is a theoretical scientific concept that involves sending objects or people backwards or forwards in the time-space continuum. Although it is effectively impossible by the standards of conventional physics, certain aspects of quantum theory suggest that time travel may be a real possibility. Time travel is a popular concept in science fiction.

Fast Facts

1. A device or vehicle designed for time travel is called a time machine
2. A person who travels through time is called a time traveler
3. Only possible in conventional physics if one were able to travel at or very near the speed of light¹
4. Light-speed travel has yet to be developed
5. Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity indicates that time travel is possible at sub-light speeds
6. Cosmic entities like black holes and wormholes could theoretically be used for time travel²

Grandfather Paradox

The concept of time travel poses a number of philosophical paradoxes about how altering actions in the past may affect the present. One of the most popular is the Grandfather Paradox, which questions what would happen if a time traveler were to go back in time and murder his grandfather. Without his grandfather, he would not have been born. But without being born, he could not travel back in time to kill his grandfather. Mind boggling!

Notable Time Travelers

1. The guy from H.G. Wells's The Time Machine
2. Homer Simpson
3. Bender Bending Rodriguez
4. John Titor
5. Emmet Lathrop "Doc" Brown
6. Marty McFly
7. Doctor Who

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