Einstein's Rocket Ship (aka. Relativistic Time Travel)
Travelling near the maximum speed of light isn't just a matter of stepping on the gas. You don't just end up going faster.
When you travel near the speed of light, time and mass start to behave strangely.
For instance, if a cow were to travel at 100% of the speed of light,
it would have the momentum of an object that weighed 2, 999.998 kg (6, 613.863 pounds). That's almost 4 times the cow's normal mass.
If it were to travel at that speed for 1000 years it would arrive having aged only 1 year.
Neat huh?! This isn't science fiction. This is science fact which is verified daily at particle accelerators that accelerate particles to relativistic speeds.
On a separate note, I'd like to point out that this sort of time travel has potential value in the realm of computing.
If we could just accelerate the entire Earth up to close to the speed of light relative to Mars, we could do calculations using computers on Mars. It would be equivalent of having
computers which ran at any speed we wanted.
Traveler
Once the journey is complete, the party girl standing on the moon will have been waiting for 32, 756, 079, 600 seconds
while the Influenza virus will have experienced 1, 577, 862, 000 seconds of travel time.
In order to arrive right on time it was necessary for it to travel with a velocity of
1, 079, 205, 803.373 km/hr (670, 587, 396.096 miles/hr) (0.0043% less than the speed of light in a vacuum)
relative to the party girl.
Before and after the journey the Influenza virus has a mass of 0.000000 000000 000000 0064 kg (0.000000 000000 000000 014 pounds).
However, during the journey it had an inertial mass of 0.000000 000000 000000 69 kg (0.000000 000000 000001 5 pounds). This is due to the way that travelling near the speed of light causes an object's inertial mass to increase.
Strange as it may seem, travelling close to the speed of light relative to someone else is a legitimate way of travelling forward in time.
This site is still in alpha mode, so I'd love it if you would double check my information and calculations. Here is what you need.
Influenza virus: For purposes of this comparison it has the following properties:
Peak Width: 0.000000 018 meters
Peak Height: 0.000000 018 meters
Peak Depth: 0.000000 018 meters
The Influenza Virus (aka. the flu).
