The unknown universe: The nature of space and time

by S. Kishockkanthan

What is the nature of Time? How does it work? Does it flow only in one direction? Does it have a beginning or an end? What does this invisible thing carry? Future? Our best understanding of ‘time’ comes from Einstein Theory of Relativity. Prior to this, time was considered to be absolute and universal.

But according to Einstein Theory of Relativity, time is relative, not absolute as Newton claimed. With the proper technology such as a very fast spaceship, one person is able to experience several days while another person simultaneously experiences only a few hours or minutes.

The same two people meet up again, one having experienced days or even years while the other has only experienced minutes. The person in the spaceship only needs to travel close to the speed of light. The faster they travel, the slower their time will pass relative to someone planted firmly on the earth. I would like to address one of my questions that I raised above about “how time works”. Simply, ‘time’ is a thing that allows things to happen, I guess, explaining how it works comparing the Standard Gravitation which would present an easy understanding of the subject in question. Time And Gravitation Everything in the universe travels through space, and time at the speed of light, the maximum speed that is available. Imagine you are travelling in a spaceship into space at the speed of light, or to be easier, imagine that Time travels from Point ‘A’ through ‘B’ in a straight line (only in one dimension) as indicated in the diagram below, at a constant speed of light having an equal rate of acceleration force (Standard Gravitation) at all points. Assume that the velocity of light is the same throughout as if it is in a vacuum.

Imagine that the spaceship starts travelling at the speed of light in a straight line from Point ‘A’ to ‘B’, and on its way, an apple falls inside the spaceship just a fraction of a second before the spaceship reaches the exact speed of light.

Having reached the speed of light, if it keeps travelling and the speed continues to be constant, what would happen to the apple? Would the apple reach the floor of the spaceship according to Newton’s Theory of Gravitation? Even if gravitation still exists to pull the apple down, it will not occur since the spaceship with the apple is travelling at the highest speed that anything can possibly travel in the universe.

If the apple still keeps falling due to the force of gravitation, it will eventually exceed the speed of light, which is considered impossible. As a result it will be in a suspended position (between the ceiling and the floor) where it had reached the speed of light and will continue moving forward with the spaceship.

According to Newton’s 1st law, “A body will continue in its present state of rest or, if it is in motion, will continue to move with uniform speed in a straight line unless it is acted upon by a force.”

The apple will not move an inch in any other direction except for moving in a straight line remaining in the same relative position until the spaceship slows down. Understanding this new idea is to revolutionise our views about why the apple hangs in the middle. This is not only because of the maximum speed it is travelling at, but also there is no available present time for the apple to reach the floor since it is using the maximum time moving forward.

If a super force were allowed to act upon the spaceship to exceed the speed of light, then the apple that hangs in the middle would start moving upwards itself to its previous position and the on-board time would keep running backwards as the spaceship accelerates.

The faster the spaceship accelerates beyond the speed of light, the faster the backward time speeds up. What could be the result if the spaceship returns and travels in the opposite direction? (When it travels towards time from Point ‘B’ to ‘A’) in the given direction, if the apple starts falling while the spaceship reaches the speed of light, something remarkable happens on-board, as the apple will not hang in the middle. Instead it will fall and reach the floor of the spaceship just twice quicker than what would happen in general.

This means, if it takes 6 seconds for the apple to reach the floor when the spaceship is at rest, now it will take only 3 seconds. At the same time, it just seems to be exceeding the permitted speed, but in fact, it is not. It is simply the rate of existing time onboard is twice faster.

If it is measured in a clock inside the spaceship it will agree with the time measured when the spaceship is at rest, which is 6 seconds.

Does this sound confusing? All right, Let me try a bit more to explain this idea clearly. Imagine that two apples are falling from the same height- one is on earth, the other one is inside the spaceship falling down as the spaceship travels towards time at the speed of light, and if it is measured in a general clock, the apple inside the spaceship will reach the floor twice faster than the apple on earth. In other words, if the spaceship is estimated to arrive travelling towards time (from Point ‘B’ to ‘A’) in 10 years at the speed of light, unexpectedly, it will arrive just in 5 years, but for the spaceship it will be a quite 10 years experience. It seems to be a very complicating and strange concept as it is impossible to calculate accurately since everything works in relation to time as described above.

The main idea of the concept is that whenever a body moving at a high speed close to the speed of light in the same direction as time, experiences a time that ticks slower and when it travels in the opposite direction to time, experiences a time that ticks faster than the time measured at zero speed or relative to a stationery observer.