Can aeroplanes be technically used as time travel machines?

Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the concept of time travel in relation to air travel, specifically whether flying to a different time zone constitutes traveling into the future. Participants explore the implications of time zones and the perception of time when traveling by airplane.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • One participant suggests that landing in a country one hour ahead means they have technically landed in the future.
  • Several participants challenge this idea, asserting that changing time zones does not equate to time travel.
  • Another participant argues that being one hour ahead does not imply being ahead in time, comparing it to simply changing a clock without moving.
  • A hypothetical scenario involving Dorothy and her dog Toto illustrates the concept of time zones and UTC, emphasizing that local time differences do not reflect actual time travel.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally disagree on the notion that traveling to a different time zone constitutes time travel. Multiple competing views remain, with no consensus reached.

Contextual Notes

Participants express various assumptions about time perception and the nature of time zones, but these assumptions remain unresolved within the discussion.

Jacinta
Messages
22
Reaction score
12
So I'm currently on holidays somewhere, and it's one hour ahead of where i live. Since i went on the areoplane and landed to a new country where the time is an hour ahead, this also means i technically landed into the future, right?
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: ISamson
Physics news on Phys.org
No.
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: russ_watters and Bystander
Borek said:
No.

Why? Can you support your argument? :)
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: Jacinta
Borek said:
No.

But I'm technically one hour ahead of everyone back home, so I'm living one hour into the future.
 
No. Just like you won't be ahead of time if you just set your clock to time+1h without moving from home.
 
Borek said:
No. Just like you won't be ahead of time if you just set your clock to time+1h without moving from home.

But if you change the time on your phone that won't actually change the time, whereas I'm currently an hour ahead of everyone back home.
 
Jacinta said:
But I'm technically one hour ahead of everyone back home, so I'm living one hour into the future.
Call them on the phone and see if you have to wait an hour for a reply.
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: lekh2003, Bystander and phinds
russ_watters said:
Call them on the phone and see if you have to wait an hour for a reply.

They probably wouldn't even respond, but that's not the point.
 
Jacinta said:
They probably wouldn't even respond, but that's not the point.
Yes, it IS the point.
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: Bystander
  • #10
phinds said:
Yes, it IS the point.

i'm pretty sure the reason they wouldn't respond is not only due to time difference.
 
  • #11
It's the same time, but we need to write the time fully to see that.

Suppose Dorothy and her dog Toto are in Denver Colorado and it is 9AM.
We write it as 09:00 MST, where the 'MST' denotes Mountain Standard Time.
Or more fully as 09:00:00-07:00 in standardized ISO 8601 notation, which means we have subtracted 7 hours from Universal Coordinated Time (UTC).

Now she and her dog are magically transported to Kansas City (instantaneously), where it is 10AM, or rather 10:00 CST, with 'CST' for Central Standard Time.
Again more fully 10:00:00-06:00.
Both are also written as 16:00:00Z, which is the time that a clock at the zero meridian (Greenwich, England) shows.

So even though the local clock shows a different time than Dorothy's watch, which really represents the altitude of the sun, it really is the same (UTC) time.
It's similar to how degrees Fahrenheit are converted to degrees Celsius. It's a different number but the same temperature.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: newbz and Ryan_m_b
  • #12
Jacinta said:
They probably wouldn't even respond, but that's not the point.
I can see you are not being serious. Thread locked.
 

Similar threads

Physicist monkey and vending machine story
  • · Replies 18 ·
Replies
18
Views
3K
High School Is SpaceTime just DistanceTime?
  • · Replies 11 ·
Replies
11
Views
2K
High School Special relativity thought: Traveling to the future relative to a particle
  • · Replies 29 ·
Replies
29
Views
3K
High School Can Time Travel Ever Become Reality?
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
3K
High School How Did Early Navigators Use Time to Determine Their Location?
  • · Replies 5 ·
Replies
5
Views
2K
High School Time traveling in the future and in the past
  • · Replies 23 ·
Replies
23
Views
3K
Undergrad Can a quantum state be thought of simply as one allowing bidirectional time travel?
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
2K
High School Need help with understanding time travel
  • · Replies 8 ·
Replies
8
Views
3K
Undergrad Time travel is a fact or fiction.?
  • · Replies 9 ·
Replies
9
Views
3K
Graduate Reporting my own post to bring this to the attention of a moderator.
  • · Replies 39 ·
2
Replies
39
Views
4K