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Ten Short Lessons in Time Travel
'10 Short Lessons in Time Travel lucidly sums up the essential parts of this fascinating subject.' John Gribbin
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In Ten Short Lessons in Time Travel, Brian Clegg takes us on a fascinating and up-to-date tour of the workings of the universe that suggest the possibility of journeying back and forth through time.
Einstein’s special theory of relativity told us that time travel to the future was possible, and later his general theory of relativity showed us that loops in spacetime could exist, meaning that we might be able to bend time backwards, too. But what are the practicalities of making time travel possible? What do we still need to know? How do we deal with paradoxical twists in time – and could quantum physics hold the answer? From the imagination of novelists to current research, 10 Short Lessons in Time Travel is a grand tour of the essential lessons in this game-changing area of physics.
About the series: The Pocket Einstein series is a collection of essential pocket-sized guides for anyone looking to understand a little more about some of the most important and fascinating areas of science in the twenty-first century. Broken down into ten simple lessons and written by leading experts in their field, discover the ten most important takeaways from those areas of science you’ve always wanted to know more about.
________________________
In Ten Short Lessons in Time Travel, Brian Clegg takes us on a fascinating and up-to-date tour of the workings of the universe that suggest the possibility of journeying back and forth through time.
Einstein’s special theory of relativity told us that time travel to the future was possible, and later his general theory of relativity showed us that loops in spacetime could exist, meaning that we might be able to bend time backwards, too. But what are the practicalities of making time travel possible? What do we still need to know? How do we deal with paradoxical twists in time – and could quantum physics hold the answer? From the imagination of novelists to current research, 10 Short Lessons in Time Travel is a grand tour of the essential lessons in this game-changing area of physics.
About the series: The Pocket Einstein series is a collection of essential pocket-sized guides for anyone looking to understand a little more about some of the most important and fascinating areas of science in the twenty-first century. Broken down into ten simple lessons and written by leading experts in their field, discover the ten most important takeaways from those areas of science you’ve always wanted to know more about.
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About the author
Brian Clegg
162 books3,172 followersBrian's latest books, Ten Billion Tomorrows and How Many Moons does the Earth Have are now available to pre-order. He has written a range of other science titles, including the bestselling Inflight Science, The God Effect, Before the Big Bang, A Brief History of Infinity, Build Your Own Time Machine and Dice World.
Along with appearances at the Royal Institution in London he has spoken at venues from Oxford and Cambridge Universities to Cheltenham Festival of Science, has contributed to radio and TV programmes, and is a popular speaker at schools. Brian is also editor of the successful www.popularscience.co.uk book review site and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Brian has Masters degrees from Cambridge University in Natural Sciences and from Lancaster University in Operational Research, a discipline originally developed during the Second World War to apply the power of mathematics to warfare. It has since been widely applied to problem solving and decision making in business.
Brian has also written regular columns, features and reviews for numerous publications, including Nature, The Guardian, PC Week, Computer Weekly, Personal Computer World, The Observer, Innovative Leader, Professional Manager, BBC History, Good Housekeeping and House Beautiful. His books have been translated into many languages, including German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, Norwegian, Thai and even Indonesian.
Along with appearances at the Royal Institution in London he has spoken at venues from Oxford and Cambridge Universities to Cheltenham Festival of Science, has contributed to radio and TV programmes, and is a popular speaker at schools. Brian is also editor of the successful www.popularscience.co.uk book review site and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Brian has Masters degrees from Cambridge University in Natural Sciences and from Lancaster University in Operational Research, a discipline originally developed during the Second World War to apply the power of mathematics to warfare. It has since been widely applied to problem solving and decision making in business.
Brian has also written regular columns, features and reviews for numerous publications, including Nature, The Guardian, PC Week, Computer Weekly, Personal Computer World, The Observer, Innovative Leader, Professional Manager, BBC History, Good Housekeeping and House Beautiful. His books have been translated into many languages, including German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, Norwegian, Thai and even Indonesian.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 13, 2022
Great summary of all current theories, paradoxes and areas of exploration. But at least now I’m convinced, time travel (as it is shown in the movies) is impossible.
June 13, 2021
A really fun and absolutely fascinating little book - it doesn't skimp on getting technical, nor does it ever become overly complex and sacrifice accessibility.
October 4, 2024
I have finished reading “10 Short Lessons in Time Travel” by Brian Clegg.
"Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. But I rather believe than time is a companion who goes with us on the journey, and reminds us to cherish every moment because they'll never come again. What we leave behind is not as important how we lived"
Captain Picard, Star Trek Generations.
Time travel is theoretically possible and is fundamentally an engineering problem to be resolved, are just some of the bold conclusions arrived at in this very short book.
The author makes the case that the story started with Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (Special and General Theories), which firmly make the case that Space and Time are not separate. They exist linked together in a Space-Time continuum. If Space can be warped then so can time. The way Space can be warped is most commonly through gravity.
I was astonished to hear that it has already been proven that objects can be sent into the future, if by very marginal degrees. Experiments have sent atomic clocks on long commercial flights, synchronised at the start with land based equivalents, only for the airborne ones to have variations of seconds once they land. Even further out, the Voyager 1 probe, travelling at a staggering speed is now seconds in the future compared to the rest of the Earth. This is called Time Dilation. We can therefore conclude that time travel into the future is more obtainable than going into the past.
Different theoretical methods of developing Time Travel into the passed are discussed in this book. I will admit up front, I am not confident that I understood it all. However, I did appreciate that the author went to great lengths to try and explain practical orbital physics, theoretical physics and even Quantum Physics to the average reader. In the case of myself where any kind of physics beyond the basics is a stretch, to say the least this was a lot to get my head around but nonetheless interesting.
Much reference is made in the book between what we know of Time Travel and it’s connections to Science Fiction interpretations on the subject. The author makes an interesting observation that many early works of fictions based on fantasy have referenced people effectively travelling in time by being either transported there by magic, or sent to sleep for long periods by supernatural means. It was really H.G. Wells with “The Time Machine”, who seemed to pioneer the concept of creating a man-made device that could navigate Time.
Overall, my head feels like it has had a massive work out and I am left feeling exhausted, but informed and inspired. I sense this would make a fantastic book to read while stoned and maybe listening to some 70s Prog Rock. But stone sober and in studious silence I found much to get out of this book. One of the things I believe it does so well is to at least attempt to make science accessible. Ignorance unfortunately has many fathers today, including sadly the wilful variety. However, I feel that books like this do much to break through those walls and remind people of how truly exciting and inspiring Science can be. It can admittedly be frightening too, especially when dealing with such concepts.
Rightly, the majority of the book was dedicated to explaining the theoretical underpinnings and possible mechanics of Time Travel. However, I felt an odd choice was made by the author to dedicate a whole chapter to talking about putting people into stasis, mainly by Cryonics, to essentially freeze people who could be woken up in the future. I don’t really see this as strictly Time Travel and I imagine this isn’t what many other readers may have had in mind when reading this book. It feels a bit petty pointing this out when the rest of this book is so well put together. But I can’t help thinking about the missed opportunities there were to pick up on other strands of this vast topic. Is Time Travel potentially the biggest Weapon of Mass Destruction that we will never see coming? Is it even possible to alter the timeline? Should we find a way to govern this technology? Should we destroy all attempts to even make it? Is Time Travel inevitable like Nuclear technology? Where do the ethical implications begin and end?
But after my brain getting a good whacking, one thing still sticks in my head, at least one form of Time Travel is possible? So what else is possible?
"Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. But I rather believe than time is a companion who goes with us on the journey, and reminds us to cherish every moment because they'll never come again. What we leave behind is not as important how we lived"
Captain Picard, Star Trek Generations.
Time travel is theoretically possible and is fundamentally an engineering problem to be resolved, are just some of the bold conclusions arrived at in this very short book.
The author makes the case that the story started with Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (Special and General Theories), which firmly make the case that Space and Time are not separate. They exist linked together in a Space-Time continuum. If Space can be warped then so can time. The way Space can be warped is most commonly through gravity.
I was astonished to hear that it has already been proven that objects can be sent into the future, if by very marginal degrees. Experiments have sent atomic clocks on long commercial flights, synchronised at the start with land based equivalents, only for the airborne ones to have variations of seconds once they land. Even further out, the Voyager 1 probe, travelling at a staggering speed is now seconds in the future compared to the rest of the Earth. This is called Time Dilation. We can therefore conclude that time travel into the future is more obtainable than going into the past.
Different theoretical methods of developing Time Travel into the passed are discussed in this book. I will admit up front, I am not confident that I understood it all. However, I did appreciate that the author went to great lengths to try and explain practical orbital physics, theoretical physics and even Quantum Physics to the average reader. In the case of myself where any kind of physics beyond the basics is a stretch, to say the least this was a lot to get my head around but nonetheless interesting.
Much reference is made in the book between what we know of Time Travel and it’s connections to Science Fiction interpretations on the subject. The author makes an interesting observation that many early works of fictions based on fantasy have referenced people effectively travelling in time by being either transported there by magic, or sent to sleep for long periods by supernatural means. It was really H.G. Wells with “The Time Machine”, who seemed to pioneer the concept of creating a man-made device that could navigate Time.
Overall, my head feels like it has had a massive work out and I am left feeling exhausted, but informed and inspired. I sense this would make a fantastic book to read while stoned and maybe listening to some 70s Prog Rock. But stone sober and in studious silence I found much to get out of this book. One of the things I believe it does so well is to at least attempt to make science accessible. Ignorance unfortunately has many fathers today, including sadly the wilful variety. However, I feel that books like this do much to break through those walls and remind people of how truly exciting and inspiring Science can be. It can admittedly be frightening too, especially when dealing with such concepts.
Rightly, the majority of the book was dedicated to explaining the theoretical underpinnings and possible mechanics of Time Travel. However, I felt an odd choice was made by the author to dedicate a whole chapter to talking about putting people into stasis, mainly by Cryonics, to essentially freeze people who could be woken up in the future. I don’t really see this as strictly Time Travel and I imagine this isn’t what many other readers may have had in mind when reading this book. It feels a bit petty pointing this out when the rest of this book is so well put together. But I can’t help thinking about the missed opportunities there were to pick up on other strands of this vast topic. Is Time Travel potentially the biggest Weapon of Mass Destruction that we will never see coming? Is it even possible to alter the timeline? Should we find a way to govern this technology? Should we destroy all attempts to even make it? Is Time Travel inevitable like Nuclear technology? Where do the ethical implications begin and end?
But after my brain getting a good whacking, one thing still sticks in my head, at least one form of Time Travel is possible? So what else is possible?
October 4, 2024
a mixed bag, much like hawkings - certainly more accessible but at times, felt it went *too* basic/dumbed down - especially in the first half, a lot of it felt more like a history of science fiction books (which was interesting!) than explaining the science. on the other hand, the second half of the book got more confusing and the lack of information didn’t help - had to do a lot of googling and, like with hawking, there were points where i just had to accept things without understading them because all the googling/reading made my brain hurt and i still didn’t understand haha
physics is so confusing but so interesting and it’s been nice to develop my understanding a bit even if i now have a million more questions than answers - hopefully these two books have served as a good foundation to keep expanding my knowledge/understanding
physics is so confusing but so interesting and it’s been nice to develop my understanding a bit even if i now have a million more questions than answers - hopefully these two books have served as a good foundation to keep expanding my knowledge/understanding
March 28, 2022
A good explanation of both general and special relativity in relation to time travel. No math. 🙂
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews