TIME TRAVEL KIT

Ready to travel through time ? Here are a few things to keep in mind. When you move faster in space, you move slower in time. You are actually aging more slowly when you're in motion than when you are standing still. (In fact, Einstein might still be alive today — if he had jumped on a spaceship traveling near the speed of light.)

illustration analog clock reading 10:00 with swirl patterns behind it
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We all travel forward in time differently.

Here are three ways to do it:

#1

Sit there. Okay! You've just traveled through time!

#2

Run for 2 minutes at full speed. Just by staying in motion that long, you've aged a tiny bit of a second less than a person who is standing still!

#3

Travel on a plane going about 600 mph for your entire life. You'd age more slowly than your friend who is sitting at home, but only by a fraction of a second — and you'd have to eat a lot of airplane food!

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How can you tell when time is moving more slowly? You can't tell — unless you move close to the speed of light, and then compare your watch to that of somebody who had stayed behind.

Sound too wild to be true? Scientists have actually confirmed this by placing very accurate clocks on flying airplanes.

Image credits

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Image Credits:

Kid photos: courtesy of Denis Finnin, AMNH; It's All Relative: Jim Paillot; Rabbit, elephant, and ant: Francesco Santalacia; You Light Up My Life!: Cathy Sanchez Duvivier