this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2023
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[–] Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de -3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Backwards time travel is physically impossible. You would need to travel at truly negative speed to achieve it, but the magnitude of speed is always positive.

[–] Chrobin@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Correction: You'd need to travel with a speed higher than the vacuum speed of light.

[–] Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Thinking about it, it's even more complicated than that. You're right that a negative speed would not work since the square of a negative number is positive anyway. But a speed higher than c would result in a negative square root, so no real solution. Also, traveling at exactly the speed of light would divide by zero lol

But maybe our formula is wrong. Or it's just impossible, who knows?