Boring Bits of Stuffy Science

Allow me a momentary indulgence. I would like to explore/share something which has endlessly fascinated me. That something is called 'time'.

In school, we learn about length and breadth, like in a square or a rectangle. Length and breadth are known as the two dimensions, or 2-D for short.

Most of us might know the third dimension: height. So using the same analogy of a square, a cube is a three-dimensional square. It has length, breadth and height. We live in a three-dimensional world because we see length, breadth and height everyday.

Now, what most of us might not know, is there exists a fourth dimension: Time.

This fourth dimension is rather fascinating. We live from moment to moment, second to second, minute to minute, hour to hour. But if we manage to see our lives as a continuous film strip, from birth to death, then we will be seeing the fourth dimension, time.

Which bring me to my main point: time travel. We have endless books and films on this subject. "Back To The Future" is the earliest film i can remember that touched on time travel. H G Wells wrote a book called "The Time Machine" and a movie was made from it. Most of these said books and films seem to believe that as you go faster, you will somehow travel through time.

But all this flim-flam and science fiction ignored a simple fact: it can't be done.

Why?

Two important reasons: relativity and time paradox.

The first reason, relativity, was invented by the famous Albert Einstein. The same person who invented the atomic bomb, only to regret it when he saw the massive destruction it caused. The same person who came up with theories of Light.

According to his theory, as you go faster, the heavier you become. For example, if you travel at infinite speed to travel through time, your mass will become infinitely heavier. And since you become heavier, you become slower. And since you become slower, you can't travel at infinite speed to travel through time.

The second reason is time paradox. This is best illustrated with an example. H G Wells elaborated this clearly in his book/movie. In "The Time Machine", the inventor's wife was killed in a robbery. Consumed with grief and determined to rectify it, he built a time machine to go back into the past to prevent her death. But he couldn't, no matter how hard he tried.

Why?

Because if he did save his wife, then he will have no reason to build the time machine, and hence will not go back to save his wife. A time paradox.

Right. Now that i've gotten that out of my system, i can move on with my life. :)