Time Travel

In 1895, science fiction novelist H.G. Wells wrote The Time Machine, a story in which an inventor creates a time machine and travels 800,000 years into the future. He finds that the remnants of humanity have split into two species: gentle surface dwellers and a savage underground race. The book was an instant bestseller, launching a new genre of time-travel fiction.

In 1960, George Pal directed the film adaptation of "The Time Machine" which became a science fiction classic. A new movie adaptation directed by Simon Wells (the great-grandson of the author) scored well on its opening weekend, showing that time travel fiction continues to stir audience's imaginations.

Is time travel really fiction? According to the greatest mathematicians and physicists of this century and the last, traveling to the future is not only theoretically possible, it's a proven scientific fact. In this online lesson you will learn about the mysteries of relativity, special relativity, and quantum physics that make time travel a theoretical if not inevitable reality.

H.G. Wells and The Time Machine

Before exploring the theoretical possibility of traveling into the future, consider a trip into the past by reading The Time Machine by H.G. Wells at eBooks.com. First read the short biography, and then read excerpts from the book (or read the whole novel if you have time).

How many books did Wells write? Name several titles you have heard of or read. How many novels had Wells written before The Time Machine? What caused Wells to become pessimistic about the future of mankind late in his life?

NOVA - Time Travel

For a superb introduction to the science of time travel, visit the Time Travel site at NOVA Online. You will read the views of today's leading physicist regarding the possibility of time travel. Begin with the third option, Think Like Einstein. You don't have to be a super brain for this activity; asimple analogy helps you work out the same problem Einstein tackled when he developed his special theory of relativity. Click on to part 1... to start thinking like a genius, answer the first set of questions, and then continue on from there. Eventually you will come to an important conclusion, that time is not the same for all observers (in other words, time moves at different speeds depending on how fast you are are moving relative to someone else).

Now return to the home page and click Sagan on Time Travel. Sagan is the author of Contact, a science fiction novel (and now a film) in which a person on earth travels to a E=MC2 distant star and back in what seems on earth to be an instant. And he has a perfectly reasonable, scientific explanation for this. Find out what it is.

Describe the "grandfather paradox." What do you think Sagan thinks of Hawking's arguments against the possibility of backwards time travel? What is a wormhole?

Finally, read Traveling Through Time, an essay about our evolving understanding of what time is and how time travel is possible. What did Newton think about time? Why did Einstein write, "Newton, forgive me." At the bottom of the page click Continue: The future of time travel. Is the author optimistic or pessimistic about the future of time travel?

Time Traveler

You understand the principle of time travel, now put it into practice with the Time Traveler game at NOVA's Einstein Revealed site. This is a time travel simulator that lets you select all the variables. First click the green twins and set their ages (use the up arrows to make both twins your age). Click the shuttle and set the speed to whatever you want (start with the default 50%). Now click any star to launch the craft and find out the ages of the twins when the spaceship returns. Try a few different stars. Now change the speed of the spacecraft to its highest setting. What other numbers changed? Which stayed the same, and why?

Time Travel for Beginners

Time I'm not sure how author and science writer John Gribbin defines a beginner, but his collection of short essays on time travel are not quite freshman physics level, even if his writing is straightforward. You can find this collection at his personal web site, called Everything you always wanted to know about time travel. Choose any essays you want to read, or read them all. How to build a time machine and Wormhole Engineering are both excellent and challenging reads.

Newspaper Activities

Time may be relative when you are moving (especially at high velocity) but it's basically the same for everyone on earth. Why do we measure time? Why is keeping time and telling time so important? Look for evidence in a current issue of The Denver Post or Rocky Mountain News. Find examples of units of time: minute, hour, day, month, 3:00, 12:00, and so on. Look in the TV listings, the sports section, the weather report, and in national or local news reports. How would the story be incomplete if time were not mentioned? How often do you refer to time during the course of your day?

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