Possibility of Time Travel at Light Speed

[quantum brain]

if it is possible to travel faster than the speed of light will we be seeing the future or the past?

 

[Rajini]

Future [but how ??]

 

[Vanadium 50]

It's not possible to travel faster than the speed of light. It's a little like asking what you would see if you were north of the North Pole.

 

[Compaq]

I guess, if these things exist, we could use a wormhole and appear someplace before the light. That way we wouldn't travel faster than light but still arrive before the light, if you see what I mean. As we came there before the light I find it logic that we would see the future. When we look at the sun, we see about 8 minutes back in time.

I'm not the person to answer, though. I'm only in High School, second year. I am, however, very interested in this stuff^^

 

[Archosaur]

if it is possible to travel faster than the speed of light will we be seeing the future or the past?

...No

 

[vibjwb]

If it were possible to travel faster than the speed of light and let's say you where looking back at the Earth you would see the Earth as it looked in the past. The longer you did that the further in the past you would see. The signal that was transmitted of men landing on the moon is still traveling in outer space at the speed of light and if you could overtake that signal by traveling faster than the signal you could see the event happen.

 

[QuantumPion]

If you could travel faster then light you could send a message to your own past, leading to all sorts of paradoxes.

I got this lecture slide from the perimeter institute lecture on the physics of impossible things: http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/in...t&task=view&id=551&Itemid=568&lecture_id=7317 which I think describes what you are asking.

 

[Bob S]

About 30 years ago, a physicist proposed that there might be a particle that can travel faster than the speed of light, which he named a tachyon. No one has ever seen such a particle, although it appears occasionally in the literature. So the tachyon is still a virtual particle. Maybe a virtual person made of tachyons could travel faster than the speed of light.

 

[Archosaur]

I am amazed that this hasn't been locked yet.

 

[Imperitor]

If it were possible to travel faster than the speed of light and let's say you where looking back at the Earth you would see the Earth as it looked in the past. The longer you did that the further in the past you would see. The signal that was transmitted of men landing on the moon is still traveling in outer space at the speed of light and if you could overtake that signal by traveling faster than the signal you could see the event happen.

What if you were traveling toward the earth??

 

[neutrino8]

if you are able to travel faster than the speed of light, you'll enter imaginary time which doesn't exist at all, so your question becomes meaningless

second answer - http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae283.cfm

 

[cragar]

i would imagine that u would see in the future because your clock would tick slower than
one that was on earth. I read in a book once that if we traveled 95% the speed of light
and we did this for 40 years our time and we came back to Earth the Earth would have aged 202 years so we could meet our great, great , great , great grandchildren so in a sense we are traveling to Earth's future.

 

[neutrino8]

i would imagine that u would see in the future because your clock would tick slower than
one that was on earth. I read in a book once that if we traveled 95% the speed of light
and we did this for 40 years our time and we came back to Earth the Earth would have aged 202 years so we could meet our great, great , great , great grandchildren so in a sense we are traveling to Earth's future.

this is only true if you travel below or at exact speed of light. If you go above it, time for you will go faster than that on Earth. As one can see from the link above, if you do a one year trip at 200% the speed of light, only about 7 months will pass by on Earth so time for you goes faster. This is only wishful thinking because if you go above the speed of light, you enter imaginary time which doesn't exist in reality, so like I said, the question becomes meaningless.