Faster than light

Many scientists claim that if anything were to travel faster than light it would travel backwards in time.

If an object were to travel from point A to point B faster than the speed of light.

It’s certainly true that observers at B would see it arrive at B before they see it leave A;

In fact, it would appear to travel backwards from B to A.

This is because their observations are dependent on light

Light which can’t keep pace with the object in question.

But if they could make observations by means of superluminal signals travelling even faster than the object concerned, everything would appear normal again and they would see the object move from A to B.

It’s absurd to think that time can literally go into reverse.

Strictly speaking, time is not something that ‘flows’.

Or that you can go backwards ‘in’ or even forwards ‘in’.

Time is a concept we use to quantify the rate at which events occur

And can be applied wherever there is change and motion.

Which basically means a succession of cause and effect.

To reverse the direction of time, effects would have to precede their causes.

On paper, it’s actually very easy to reverse the direction of time:

All you do is replace the variable ‘t’ in certain scientific equations by ‘- t’.

Any theorists who think that this shows that time can be reversed in reality need their heads examining!

David Pratt