aka...science room
time travel
Believe it or not, time travel is not only possible, scientists have actually achieved it!
Einstein came up with a theory 100 years ago which allows people and objects to travel forward in time.
Unfortunately, his theory of relativity also shows that nothing can travel backwards in time – time travel is a one way trip.
The speed of light is 300,000,000 metres per second and nothing can travel faster than this. Relativity says that time slows down as you get close to this speed.
So if you are travelling really fast, an hour might pass for you whilst your stationary friend left behind at home says that 2 hours have passed. This means that you are effectively travelling forward through time.
Experiments have been performed to show that time travel actually works in practice as well as in theory. Scientists synchronised two very accurate atomic clocks and placed one in a plane and left the other on the ground. After flying the plane around the world at its top speed they compared the time on the two clocks.
The clock on the plane was slower than the clock on the ground. This clock and the pilot had both travelled forward in time.
Perhaps not as exciting as the science fiction version of time travel – but at least it works.
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