Good_Scientist
Temporal Navigator
Hi guys,
Just thought I would say a few things about the speed of propagtion of gravity, and its implications to time travel. May live up to the sensational title!
(speed of propagtion is in no way related to the speed at which objects fall within this gravity field)
Firstly; General Relativity requires gravity to propagate at the speed of light and no faster, yet there is very little experimental evidence that this is true, and considerable evidence that gravity propagates at speeds of 2 x 10-20 m/s. This is obviously alot faster than light speed.
So why does this matter to time travel?
Well if you assume that by travelling faster than the speed of light you travel back in time, which may require belief from some of you. But if you accept this and that a viable way to acheive this (of which I believe I know of one), is true, you are assuming that you will break through the space-time fabric of our universe and begin to travel back in time.
(And in actuall fact it doesn't matter whether you think time travel occurs by another method)
The speed of gravity is such that even travelling at speeds faster than light, there would still be gravitons interacting with your mass.
So how can you travel back in time when you are still interacting with gravitons from the time you are trying to leave? Maybe you cannot. Maybe you would have to reach speeds of 2 x 10-20 m/s, to travel back in time? who knows.
What I do know is that there is considerable efforts by colleagues of mine to find the gravitational speed of propagation. One theory suggested is that the propagtion speed of gravity my depend propotionally on the masses involved in the attraction and the distance between them. There is a lower boundary of the speed of light (meaning gravity could not act slower than this). So when gravity affects small mass particles(e.g photons have no mass), the proagtion speed is approximately the speed of light. But when bigger masses are involved, say with planets and suns then the propagtion speed is considerably larger.
This would go along way to balancing both experimental evidence and relativity. Think about reasons why the speed that gravity cannot be the speed of light.
Light from the sun takes roughly 8 minutes to reach us, imagine if gravitons took the same time. there would be a horrendous lag in the orbits, and a couple would result, whereby the two bodies involved would begin to circle each other. This cannot be true because we cannot observe this in our own solar system with any of the planets and the sun.
It does explain why gravitational effects on light would appear to act t light speed given that light has no mass, its propagtion speed should be slow.
It would also explain why gravitons may never be detected, travlling at roughly 10-20m/ is way too fast to ever be detected, and what sort of instrument would be used to detect it anyway since mass absorbs gravitons.
I guess what I'm saying is that if this theory becomes accepted mathematically and conceptually into relativity, then time travle maybe ruled impossible. But maybe you could still travel back in time with some sort of 'gravity lag', who knows.
Cheers
Good Scientist
P.S I have not had a chance to view the mathematics involved or the formula, so your gues is as good as mine, and unless I am SHOWN the formula and won't get to see it. Hopefully someone will give me a hint, guess I'll find out how popular i am soon, eh?
Just thought I would say a few things about the speed of propagtion of gravity, and its implications to time travel. May live up to the sensational title!
(speed of propagtion is in no way related to the speed at which objects fall within this gravity field)
Firstly; General Relativity requires gravity to propagate at the speed of light and no faster, yet there is very little experimental evidence that this is true, and considerable evidence that gravity propagates at speeds of 2 x 10-20 m/s. This is obviously alot faster than light speed.
So why does this matter to time travel?
Well if you assume that by travelling faster than the speed of light you travel back in time, which may require belief from some of you. But if you accept this and that a viable way to acheive this (of which I believe I know of one), is true, you are assuming that you will break through the space-time fabric of our universe and begin to travel back in time.
(And in actuall fact it doesn't matter whether you think time travel occurs by another method)
The speed of gravity is such that even travelling at speeds faster than light, there would still be gravitons interacting with your mass.
So how can you travel back in time when you are still interacting with gravitons from the time you are trying to leave? Maybe you cannot. Maybe you would have to reach speeds of 2 x 10-20 m/s, to travel back in time? who knows.
What I do know is that there is considerable efforts by colleagues of mine to find the gravitational speed of propagation. One theory suggested is that the propagtion speed of gravity my depend propotionally on the masses involved in the attraction and the distance between them. There is a lower boundary of the speed of light (meaning gravity could not act slower than this). So when gravity affects small mass particles(e.g photons have no mass), the proagtion speed is approximately the speed of light. But when bigger masses are involved, say with planets and suns then the propagtion speed is considerably larger.
This would go along way to balancing both experimental evidence and relativity. Think about reasons why the speed that gravity cannot be the speed of light.
Light from the sun takes roughly 8 minutes to reach us, imagine if gravitons took the same time. there would be a horrendous lag in the orbits, and a couple would result, whereby the two bodies involved would begin to circle each other. This cannot be true because we cannot observe this in our own solar system with any of the planets and the sun.
It does explain why gravitational effects on light would appear to act t light speed given that light has no mass, its propagtion speed should be slow.
It would also explain why gravitons may never be detected, travlling at roughly 10-20m/ is way too fast to ever be detected, and what sort of instrument would be used to detect it anyway since mass absorbs gravitons.
I guess what I'm saying is that if this theory becomes accepted mathematically and conceptually into relativity, then time travle maybe ruled impossible. But maybe you could still travel back in time with some sort of 'gravity lag', who knows.
Cheers
Good Scientist
P.S I have not had a chance to view the mathematics involved or the formula, so your gues is as good as mine, and unless I am SHOWN the formula and won't get to see it. Hopefully someone will give me a hint, guess I'll find out how popular i am soon, eh?
