Researcher reveals the math of time travel and says it IS possible

But don't expect a working machine anytime soon.

Since HG Wells first popularized the idea in 1885, time travel has remained a steady theme in science fiction.

But in reality, it might be more feasible than you’d think.

A physicist has created a new model that reveals, mathematically, time travel actually is possible – but scientists have yet to discover the right materials to bring a time machine to life.

‘People think of time travel as something of fiction,’ said Ben Tippett, a mathematics and physics instructor at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus.

‘And we tend to think it’s not possible because we don’t actually do it.

‘But mathematically, it is possible.’

In a recently published study, Tippett argues that space should not be divided into three dimensions, with time separated.

Instead, he says the four dimensions should be imagined simultaneously as a space-time continuum in which the different directions are connected. 

Based on Einstein’s theory, the researcher says the curvature of space-time accounts for the curved orbits of the planets.

If space-time were not curved, planets and stars would move in straight lines, he argues.

So, near a massive star, space-time geometry becomes curved, causing the straight trajectories of nearby planets to bend to follow the curvature around the star.

‘The time direction of space-time surface also shows curvature,’ Tippett says.

‘There is evidence showing the closer to a black hole we get, time moves slower. My model of a time machine uses the curved space-time – to bend time into a circle for the passengers, not in a straight line.

‘That circle takes us back in time.’

Tippetts' model describes a Traversable Acausal Retrograde Domain in Space-time (or, a TARDIS). 

Tippetts' model describes a Traversable Acausal Retrograde Domain in Space-time (or, a TARDIS) - though not quite like the device Dr Who fans are familiar with (pictured). Instead, it would be more of a 'bubble

This would be a ‘bubble’ of space-time geometry, which can carry its contents backward and forward through space and time along a circular path.

As it can travel at speeds faster than light, it is able to move backward in time.  

While it may be mathematically possible, though, the researcher says it’s unlikely anyone will be able to build a working time machine in the foreseeable future.

‘HG Wells popularized the term ‘time machine’ and he left people with the thought that an explorer would need a ‘machine or special box’ to actually accomplish time travel,’ Tippett says.

‘While it is mathematically feasible, it is not yet possible to build a space-time machine because we need materials – which we call exotic matter – to bend space-time in these impossible ways, but they have yet to be discovered.’