• Question: Is there such thing as time trail?

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      Asked by KFC (Kung-Fu Callum) to Angus, Jenni on 24 Jun 2016.
      • Photo: Angus Cook

        Angus Cook answered on 24 Jun 2016:

        Kind of, but not quite in a TARDIS kind of way.

        We DO know that the passage of time can be changed, but it’s more like changing its ‘speed’ (if that idea makes sense for time) between full speed, and stopped.

        If you and a friend both have a big clock each, which are set to the same time, and then your friend travels in a spaceship away from you at near the speed of light, you’d see his clock slow down (you’d probably need a really REALLY good telescope). There’s nothing ‘wrong’ with his clock, but because your friend it travelling at near the speed of light you see time slow down for him! If he were travelling AT the speed of light, it’d look like time had completely stopped for him!

        (The weird thing (like that’s not weird enough) is that from your friend’s perspective, YOU are the one who’s travelling away at close to the speed of light, so YOUR clock would be going slower than theirs… This is called Special Relativity, if you want to find out more!)

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