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Home — Essay Samples — Science — Time Travel — If You Could Travel Back in Time: Exploring Historical Events and Figures

If You Could Travel Back in Time: Exploring Historical Events and Figures

• Categories: Time Travel

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Published: Sep 7, 2023

Words: 690 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

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The renaissance: a time of enlightenment and creativity, leonardo da vinci: a renaissance polymath, applying lessons from history.

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If i could go back in time essay sample, example.

When I was a teenager, one of my favorite books was “The Time Machine” by Herbert Wells. I remember how surprised and even astonished I was by the idea of the evolutionary division of humanity into Morlocks and Eloi. The former, as you may remember, are creatures dwelling underground, maintaining and controlling ancient machines, whereas the latter are a caste of light-minded, happy beings living on the surface. The symbiosis between these two species (Eloi received their clothes, food, and goods from Morlocks, while serving as food to them) shocked me the most, as well as the idea that these two species emerged from the class division existing in Great Britain during the times when Herbert Wells lived. Anyways, “The Time Machine” was the first novel to have awoken my interest in the idea of time travelling.

As I grew up, I read many other novels and stories on the same subject. I remember Howard Lovecraft’s characters travelling into the ancient depths of time to meet strange beings that ruled Earth long before humanity existed; I remember Ray Bradbury’s safari in the prehistoric era, when a man accidentally stepped on an insect, causing unbelievable changes in the future; I remember countless science-fiction movies about time travelling, starting from the “Terminator” franchise, and ending up with the surrealistic “Twelve Monkeys,” grim “Looper,” and weird and disturbing “Donnie Darko.” One common feature about almost all of such movies is the idea that by evoking changes in the past, one can change the future. This thought has always seemed rather disturbing to me; I believe that what has already happened should remain in the past. Of course, I am aware of the fact that time travelling is impossible, and it will remain so in the nearest future; however, whenever someone asks me whether I would want to travel back or forward in time, I cannot help but think of the consequences of such a journey.

I know people who, when discussing this subject, make claims like, “If I could only go back in time, I would kill Hitler,” or “I would prevent the creation of nuclear weapons,” or even “I would save Kennedy.” When I hear this, I often wonder: how can they be so careless and light-minded? Just yesterday, I was thinking about the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; undoubtedly, it was a terrible tragedy, and perhaps for people living back then, this event could have looked like the beginning of the end of the world. But, as it turned out, the world did not stop spinning; it moved on, it somehow adjusted to the presence of nuclear threat. The same can be said about World War II, the death of one of America’s brightest politicians, and about anything else: the world has always moved on, and there has been no such disaster that humanity has not been able to survive and adjust to.

The most dreadful historical events shaped the world as we know it today. It is extremely convenient to be living in the 21st century, enjoying all of its benefits and progress, and make statements like, “I would change the course of history.” But, how can one be sure that their actions would not cause unexpected harm? Historical processes are so complicated and versatile that no one can possibly predict the outcomes of one’s actions. For a brief example: can an average person predict how his or her actions will affect his or her own life in the next five years? I suppose not. So, how is it possible to anticipate any specific results (and, more importantly, positive results) when intending to change the course of history, with billions of people’s lives involved? Therefore, all these “I would kill Hitler” talks are nonsense. In reality, if you could travel back in time and change something, the consequences of this would most likely be so unpredictable and drastic that it would have possibly been better to leave everything as it is.

At the same time, travelling to the future would probably have no negative consequences. There is a great difference between the past and the future in terms of philosophy (and probably physics): the past is already determined, it happened, whereas the future is merely a yet non-existent aggregate of all the possibilities. You cannot spoil something that does not exist; however, it might also mean that travelling to the future is simply impossible.

If I could go back in time, I would change nothing. I would be extremely careful to not touch anything, because who knows what it might result in. I would rather be a tourist, a guest—preferably an invisible and invincible ghost, able only to spectate events, but not to take part in them. I would love to see the ice age, the Triassic and Cambrian periods, the dawn of the Universe, Victorian England, the United States of the 1930s, Mayan and Aztec civilizations in the flesh, Japan during the Sengoku period, visit the famous Alexandrian library and see the Colossus. I would like to see Einstein working on his general relativity theory, and hear one of Adolf Hitler’s speeches—just to check whether he was as charismatic and persuasive as many historians claim; I would want to see Picasso or Matisse working on their masterpieces, or hear The Doors singing live. There are so many things I would want to see, hear, or otherwise witness in the past, but I have no intention to change them, or to influence them somehow; to me, history is but a cinema screen, and no matter how good or bad the movie is, it has already been filmed, so nothing can (and should) be changed in it.

I only wish sometimes that I could alert myself about certain events in my life. If I could write a letter to myself when I was younger, I think I would at least try to provide support to myself. I would say something like this: “Hey man, how are you doing? I know you are currently worrying about X, but do not bother yourself—it will all turn out great. And this guy, he seems nice and honest, but don’t do business with him: he will wind you around his finger and disappear with all the money. And definitely do woo that girl: you will break up in the end, but this will be the best relationship in your life.” But… is not this all the same as trying to change history globally?

Let the past remain in the past. In the end, if I could go back in time, I would only contemplate. That would suffice.

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Reflection Essay Example: If I Could Travel Back in Time

If I were able to travel back in time and be able to talk to my younger self I would say that you should always work hard even if you don't feel like it, don't let anyone crush your dreams, and Lastly don't be scared to stand up for yourself when you stand out. I think this is what would have helped me if I heard it when I was younger.

First,  I would say that when working hard it does feel overwhelming sometimes but if you look back on what you did that small thing could impact your life. You have to push yourself to the limit and not take no for an answer. If you really want something then you could do anything you put your mind to.  A lot of people will underestimate you but you have to prove them wrong and even if you think that they're right you just have to take time to see what you can do.  I would tell myself that even if you haven't experienced it yet, there are people in the world who are sexist and won't pick you because you are female or not strong enough they will think you are weak but shake it off and don't let it get to your head.

Second, Don't let anyone crush your dreams, there will always be people who say you can't do it. People will stop you from getting to your dreams because they are either jealous or you are really making it there. We have always dreamed of becoming a doctor when we were little but we still want to be a doctor to help people. Medical school is very stressful but with our hardwork and dedication hopefully we will make it out there alive.  Even if you feel like you can not do it you have to remember that there are people out there in worse situations than you. You have to use that as a daily reminder so you don't take what you have for granted. You always have to be humble and have a positive attitude because then you start affecting people around you with a positive attitude.

Third, Don't be scared to tell people to stop bothering you because if you don't then they're gonna think it's okay and keep messing with you. You have to be the leader and tell them what they're doing wrong because the same people that messed with you are the same people that are going to be working for you.  You don't have to treat them the same way they treat you. Instead treat them with respect and if they disrespect you then you have to be the bigger person and stand up to them and if you see someone else being messed with then you respectfully help them without the violence. 

In conclusion, Be the person you dream to be instead of being the person everyone else wants you to be at the end of it all it will always come down to you.

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If I Could Go Back In Time Essay

In this essay I examine the subject common to many modern applications in pop culture – the idea of going back in time.

If I could go back in time, I’d transport myself to the 1950s, when life was simpler and people really knew how to have fun. When I think about the pedal pushers, jean jackets and slicked back hair of the era, my inner fashionista gets excited. The thought of enjoying a soda shop treat with my friends after school always produces a smile. The simpler way of life that people in this decade experienced make it a place I could definitely spend some time.

Once I reach the 1950s, my first stop would be a department store, such as Macy’s or Wannamaker’s. I would buy brightly colored dresses with fitted waists and flared skirts that went below the knee so that I could fit in with the crowd. I’d also buy white gloves, pedal pushers and blouses that I could wear to the supermarket or church. Low heels and saddle shoes would also be a must have. A pillbox hat and a straw sunhat would round out my collection.

Once I’m dressed to fit in, I’d take a stroll through the main street of the small town I’d end up in. Perhaps I’d even ride my bike, with a basket attached so that I could carry home my shopping. Since the large supermarkets of today weren’t as common during the 1950s, I’d make a stop at the butcher for some pork chops and the grocery store for fruits and vegetables. I’d also buy flour and yeast since I’ll have to bake my own bread when I get home.

That done, I wouldn’t want to miss a treat at the drugstore’s soda fountain. I’d take a seat on the red leather stool and order a chocolate egg cream, which I’d drink while catching up with the other ladies out doing their shopping. The best part would be that my treat would only cost me about 25 cents.

Once home, I’d have to get dinner started for when my family gets home. Wives and mothers in the 1950s usually didn’t work, but instead stayed home and ran the house. I’d reach into a drawer and pull out an apron that I would secure over my dress. Dinner tonight will be one of the most common 1950s meals of fried pork chops, mashed potatoes and mustard greens. Of course, I’ll also make a homemade cherry pie since dessert was eaten after dinner most every night of the week.

I don’t have a television at home because they aren’t mainstream yet and are very expensive. Instead, my family and I will spend the evening listening to our favorite radio shows, Amos ‘n Andy and Father Knows Best. Before going to sleep, I’ll read from the new bestseller, “Across the River and Into the Trees,” by Ernest Hemingway.

Without all today’s technology and the hustle and bustle of homes where both parents work and kids have every second of their day scheduled, I’d have time to enjoy my life. Sitting on the front porch in the evening actually talking with family sounds preferable to another night of television and apps. Good food, a simple routine and small town would make life just about perfect.

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ONE WITH NOW

If you could go back in time, what would you change.

Imagine that you could go back 20 years (or less if you’re younger than 35). What would you do?

Think of the pain and challenges that defined that period for you—heartache, loss, failure, shattered dreams, mistakes, regrets, doubts, fears.

Would you change anything?

When I asked myself this question, my first impulse was: I wouldn’t change a thing. Everything unfolded the way it was meant to be. I am today where I am because of the past.

Then I stopped, and thought:

Who am I kidding?

I would be lying if I said I wouldn’t change anything. There are major things that I would change … if I could.

Before I get into it, let me just say that I truly believe there are events that have been encoded into our DNA (fated at the hands of God, life, karma, or evolution) and these are unchangeable—no matter how hard we try.

I can’t force a company to keep me employed, or a relationship to last beyond its intended purpose. Nor can I prevent war, serious illness, or prejudice.

But I can most definitely choose not to be defined by these events. I have a choice, and yes I would’ve done a few things differently. This is where events are only probabilities (i.e. may or may not happen). And maybe I could’ve altered my reality in a way that was more beneficial to me.

So here is what I’d change.

Not fight the inevitable, and hang on to what was. I wasted so much time trying to save the un-savable.

Walk away from toxic people. I chose to ignore the signs and suffer for no reason, other than fear.

Not try to be a hero and meddle. It’s not my job to help people who didn’t want to help themselves. I ended up enabling the same selfish and destructive behaviors.

Feel the pain and not numb it. I fought with myself so much. I did whatever I could to numb the pain with more regrettable actions. And, paradoxically, I compounded the suffering. I’d allow myself to grieve and be with the pain.

Channel despair and fear into something useful. Instead of sinking deeper and deeper into despair, I’d choose one thing that I wanted to do, and work on it.

I would’ve done all of these things and more.

Would my life have turned out differently?

Probably not. But I wouldn’t have suffered as much. I do regret some of the choices I made, but I mostly regret how I felt about everything–anxiety, stress, fear, and a whole lot of apathy.

Back to the present

Hindsight is 20/20, and the past is in the past. Going back in time may feel like an exercise in futility. But it’s not. The emotional pain of the past lives with us until we face it, and deal with it. This is one way of dealing with it.

This exercise is not about regret , but more about choice.

When we relive the past, and look for areas where we could’ve made better choices, we can consider these choices today, and not repeat the past many times over, and feel more pain.

So take a moment to do the exercise. Think of this scenario if it helps.

Look at the events of your past. Imagine a movie playing with the younger you as the star, and you’re the director of the movie. What would you tell your lead actor?

Here is what I’d tell my younger self.

Lessons from the past

As the director of the present, I’d tell my past self, kindly and gently, to:

Trust more and have faith. There is nothing you could’ve done to not fail in life. Trust that life has and will always be on your side. Instead of wallowing in self-loathing and doubt, have faith in your abilities and worth. No one is more, or less, deserving than anyone else.

Embrace your inner badass. Don’t put up with situations thinking that you’re weak. You’re more powerful than any situation—even at times when you feel broken, damaged, or undeserving. Nip the abuse in the bud. You have enough strength to take care of yourself.

Don’t take things way too personally. Every little (or major) thing is not about you. Life/God is not on a mission to smite you. Failure happens; loss is inevitable. Step out of the selfish bubble of misery, and refocus on what you can do to move past the pain, not dig yourself deeper into blame and apathy. And for God’s sake:

Feel your pain. Don’t take it out on others; don’t suppress it; but just sit with it. Grieve, cry, write, meditate, or see a therapist, if you need to. Do whatever it takes to let go of the pain, instead of holding on to it as if it’s a badge of honor. It’s not.

When we look at the past, we realize that we can choose to have faith in our own abilities, and to trust the kindness of life. Whatever transpires is not going to last, so we don’t need to hold on to the pain forever and allow it to define us.

Revisiting the past allows me to make different choices. Today, the moment I notice signs of abuse or manipulation, I close the door, and move on. I don’t hang on, or take the failure as a reflection of my self-worth. Most importantly, I don’t take things that personally or that seriously. And it’s freeing beyond words.

Another way of making different choices is to travel to the future. You can use the same exercise and imagine yourself ten or twenty years in the future directing your present movie. What would you tell your present self?

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If I Could Go Back in Time

What would happen if people could change their past mistakes or decisions they perceive as mistakes from where they are now? Many essay writers speculated on this topic, but it never gets old. Let’s explore it once again!

I’m definitely sure that everyone at least once in his or her life thought: “If I could go back in time, I would…”. All of us have something in our past that we want to change: some people regret about mistakes they’ve done, others about things they wanted to do, but didn’t resolve to. Human beings regret about words they said, about hasty actions and conclusions, about lack of courage or persistence, etc.

Personally I regret that I’ve quarreled with a loyal friend of mine nearly half a year ago and we still do not communicate. Sometimes I feel that I need her, I need this person, who always listened to my endless stories, who could understand me even without words and who was always eager to lend me a hand, but I still do not have enough courage to call her… If I could go back in time, I would behave in another way and we still would be the best friends.

Frankly speaking, the list of facts from my past that I would be glad to improve is quite long and I won’t enumerate all of them. I just want to say that I’ve spent many hours analyzing these situations and I’ve drawn lessons for my future. I prefer not to return even in mind to these unpleasant moments of the past, only from time to time I think about them. I’m convinced that a person can hardly live a full life always thinking about the mistakes he or she had done, in other words, live in the past. Any person needs...

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Time Travel and Possible Consequences Essay (Speech)

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Introduction

Time travel: rewriting history. possible consequences, improvement or a step backward.

Time travel is one of the ideas that has been occupying the minds of several people from science fiction writers to average citizens for a while. Even though the concept has been proven practically impossible by now, the idea still retains its power and stirs people’s imagination. Taking the classical idea of time travel as the process that can potentially alter the present time, I would move further in time to explore the wonders of the future without dreading that I could disrupt the current environment beyond recognition.

Numerous sci-fi novels have taught people that time travel requires a lot of responsibility. Any minor change that one makes to the past will inevitably result in tremendous and possibly disastrous effects on the present-day environment. Therefore, I would not like the idea of going back to the past, even though witnessing a particularly spectacular event such as the first successful flight would be delightful.

However, traveling to the future is theoretically also fraught with numerous challenges. For example, if I traveled to the future, I would be excited to see technological innovations and advances, yet I would be very hesitant to tell about them in our time. What might seem like a massive improvement may have detrimental effects if people are not ready to use the suggested tools?

Even though the idea of time travel has been practically proven impossible, I would be thrilled to travel to the future and see the innovations and progress that people will have witnessed. It would be amazing to talk to the people of the future and see what discoveries they will have made and how far they will have advanced by the time I arrive. Using time travel to learn more about future technological advances and the means of coping with some of the current issues, including incurable diseases, overpopulation, etc., would be a fascinating experience.

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Can We Really Travel Back in Time to Change History?

Theoretical physicist paul davies responds to emily st. john mandel’s short story “mr. thursday.”.

Lisa Larson-Walker

Physicist Paul Davies responds to “ Mr. Thursday ,” Emily St. John Mandel’s short story about time travel.

The charm of time travel stories is that the narratives are at once easy to imagine and yet preposterous. As a theoretical physicist with a lifelong research interest in the nature of time, I am often asked by people: Can it really be done? The short answer is, yes—in a sense.

When Albert Einstein published his special theory of relativity in 1905, it made clear that travel into the future is not only possible, but a done deal. One merely has to move fast. Although any degree of relative motion will create temporal mismatches, it is the speed of light that sets the scale. If you travel close to light speed, time gets seriously warped. For example, suppose you want to reach Earth year 2100 in just one year. A yearlong spaceship journey (as experienced by you) at 99.993 per cent of the speed of light would do the trick. You would come back to Earth just one year older to find it was now 2100 at home. In effect, you will have been propelled 82 years into Earth’s future.

There is another way to leap ahead in time: go somewhere with a higher gravitational field. Clocks tick faster in space than on the Earth’s surface, for example. The effect can be directly measured using sensitive clocks but is today commonplace because the GPS satellite-based navigational system must factor in both the speed of the satellites and the lower gravity of orbit. Time warps are real—they’re a matter of practical engineering.

Of course, with existing technology, the time shifts are disappointingly small. Plane travel, for example, creates temporal dislocations measured in a few billionths of a second, which hardly makes for a Dr. Who –style adventure. The other snag is that it is a one-way journey. You can only go forward in time—that is, reach the future sooner. You can’t come back again. Neither can you visit the past, which from the science-fiction standpoint is where the real fascination lies.

Nothing in Einstein’s theory of relativity, however, specifically forbids travel into the past, but physicists are divided over whether to take the possibility seriously. Einstein himself found the notion highly disturbing. One thing on which physicists agree: Going back in time, if not outright impossible, would be stupendously hard to achieve. Proposals abound based on wormholes in space, cosmic strings, and colossal spinning cylinders, but they all seem to necessitate supertechnology and require massive amounts of energy.

Technological barriers and costs notwithstanding, visiting the past would also seem to unleash all manner of paradoxes, which is where the science and the fiction so productively meet. In Emily St. John Mandel’s engaging story, the time traveler, Mr. Thursday, tries to change the past and save a young woman’s life. The tale ends with a rueful discussion in a bar about the consequences of altering anything in history. “Even the smallest thing, you know, you walk through a door ahead of someone …” says the singer. The movie Sliding Doors starring Gwyneth Paltrow examined precisely this theme by presenting two very contrasting narratives flowing from a seemingly minor incident of this sort. In fact, it is easy to imagine more startling examples. It is merely necessary for a person to be displaced by a billionth of a centimeter to alter history, if in so doing a cosmic ray hits a key atom of DNA and induces cancer. If that person were, say, the young Adolf Hitler, the world today would be a very different place.

Causal loop paradoxes might seem to scupper the whole idea of visiting the past, suggesting that any interaction, however tiny, between the time traveler and the past world would be inconsistent with the future from which he had come. But there is a loophole: quantum mechanics.

Quantum mechanics is a description of all of nature, but its effects are most dramatic at the atomic level. The characteristic features are indeterminism and uncertainty: fire an electron at an atom and observe it bounce to the right. Repeat the process under identical conditions and next time it may bounce to the left. It is impossible to know in advance what is going to happen, although the relative probabilities can be accurately calculated. Quantum phenomena imply that the future is undetermined and open.

Less well known is that the inherent fuzziness of quantum mechanics applies to the past as well as the future. Contrary to common sense, there is no fixed and well-defined history stretching back from the present state of the world to the big bang origin of the universe. Rather, there is a multiplicity of contending histories, co-existing in a ghostly superposition of half-realities. Observations made today can nail down certain specific events in the past, like, for example, detecting a cosmic ray may determine its point of origin thousands of years ago. But most of the past, at least at the micro-level, remains not just unknown to us but intrinsically undetermined.

The existence of multiple parallel realities opens the way for time travel. If there is no “fact of the matter” about some aspect of the past, then there is no paradox if a person journeys back in time and resolves something hitherto fuzzy—that is, if the action of a time traveler in the past concretizes a history that would otherwise be left undetermined. It is important to understand that the past cannot be changed, but it can be made less vague, less ambiguous. Intriguingly, experiments with photons ( in the present !) demonstrate how a measurement made at one moment affects the nature of reality at a past moment by resolving its quantum fuzziness, even though the measurement cannot alter the past state. So this weird aspect of quantum mechanics, closely related to what Einstein called “spooky action,” is well established.

But there is a caveat: Whatever the time traveler does in the past, it must be consistent with the state of the world from which she or he has come. Thus it is not possible to go back in time and kill your mother before you were born. But there may be no problem about going back to save a girl from being murdered, and having that girl become your mother, because it forms a self-consistent narrative.

Of course, this means the time traveler does not have unrestricted freedom to do as he pleases. He is hemmed in by the laws of physics. But that is nothing new. After all, I might want to walk on the ceiling, yet the laws of physics forbid it—I’ll simply fall. When causal loops are involved, the restrictions on what is or is not possible will be more severe. What would happen if you tried to kill your mother in the past? Would the knife fall down? Would you simply be unable to lift your arm? Many things could go wrong. But there is nothing strictly paradoxical about someone being part of his own past. So Mr. Thursday may not be able to prevent the accident, but he might have been able to exploit quantum fuzziness to tweak the details of how it happened.

According to Mr. Thursday, time travel would eventually become illegal. But it’s the laws of physics, not the laws of humans, that ensure the universe remains rational, even if it is indeterministic.

This article is part of Future Tense , a collaboration among Arizona State University , New America , and Slate . Future Tense explores the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy, and culture. To read more, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our weekly newsletter .

If Time Travel were Real

How it works

On the off chance that I could go back in time I would learn however much I can. I would go to my kid hood, significant dates ever, and attempt to discover significant political dates in history too. what’s more, attempt to discover where did my family came from. I could enter a time machine, I couldn’t imagine anything better than to have the option to return in time when I was a youngster. Taking the information I have now from the existence exercises I have encountered, I would have the option to completely change me and exploit things like my folks and a secondary school training.

Your folks attempt to disclose to you the significance of school and training when you are a kid, yet it is solely after when you become a grown-up that you understand the worth and significance it has and how it will profit your life and future. I suppose you can say as a parent, you are returning on schedule with your kids, with the exception of you are trusting that they will gain from your encounters and carry on with their life how you wish you could have.

I would return to 1774 when Marie Antoinette became sovereign, and show her my set of experiences books, and implore her to PLEASE keep away from jewels, disregard her brothers by marriage, watch out for the proprietors of print machines, show less blessing to her child Louis Charles before poor Marie Therese with the goal that the young lady isn’t so inclined to sharpness, follow the counsel of her mother and Joseph II, attempt to keep Catherine II on her great side, be more thoughtful to Gustav III when he visits her later on after his visit through Italy, take no guff at all from those awful ladies from Paris, and in particular, be substantially more arrangement and steady to her better half, who was actually a generally excellent person as I would see it.

On the off chance that she accepted my recommendation, perhaps that would change how things turned out in 1789, and the French Revolution either wouldn’t have occurred or possibly wouldn’t have been so brutal, grisly, out of line and unreasonable Throughout the Famine years, almost 1,000,000 Irish showed up in the United States. Starvation migrants were the principal large influx of helpless exiles at any point to show up in the U. S. also, Americans were just overpowered. Upon appearance in America, the Irish discovered the going to be very intense.

With nobody to help them, they promptly subsided into the most reduced bar of society and pursued a day by day fight for endurance. The most unpleasant greeting of all would be in Boston, Massachusetts, an Anglo-Saxon city with a populace of around 115,000. It was a spot run by relatives of English Puritans, men who could gladly discuss their heredity back to 1620 and the Mayflower transport. Presently, nearly 200 thirty years after the fact, their city was going through downright an undesirable “social insurgency” as depicted by Ephraim Peabody, individual from an old Yankee family.

In 1847, the principal huge year of Famine resettlement, the city was overwhelmed with 37,000 Irish Catholics showing up via ocean and land in the event that I could bring the information from the past to the current life wounld be so difficult or possibly it wouldnt . We dont understand what will occur with our destiny, perhaps its des? ny for us to fall flat, world necessities ditch diggers as well. in any case, we won’t ever know yet we ought to consistently attempt to succsess throughout everyday life or you can simply go with the ? ow and see what occurs.

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• 14 April 2021

‘If I could travel in time’ by Zed 5755

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Jessy Randall’s work has appeared in Analog , Asimov’s and Strange Horizons . Her most recent book is How to Tell If You Are Human: Diagram Poems (Pleiades, 2018). She is a librarian at Colorado College and her website is http://bit.ly/JessyRandall .

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Is Time Travel Possible?

We all travel in time! We travel one year in time between birthdays, for example. And we are all traveling in time at approximately the same speed: 1 second per second.

We typically experience time at one second per second. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's space telescopes also give us a way to look back in time. Telescopes help us see stars and galaxies that are very far away . It takes a long time for the light from faraway galaxies to reach us. So, when we look into the sky with a telescope, we are seeing what those stars and galaxies looked like a very long time ago.

However, when we think of the phrase "time travel," we are usually thinking of traveling faster than 1 second per second. That kind of time travel sounds like something you'd only see in movies or science fiction books. Could it be real? Science says yes!

This image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows galaxies that are very far away as they existed a very long time ago. Credit: NASA, ESA and R. Thompson (Univ. Arizona)

How do we know that time travel is possible?

More than 100 years ago, a famous scientist named Albert Einstein came up with an idea about how time works. He called it relativity. This theory says that time and space are linked together. Einstein also said our universe has a speed limit: nothing can travel faster than the speed of light (186,000 miles per second).

Einstein's theory of relativity says that space and time are linked together. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

What does this mean for time travel? Well, according to this theory, the faster you travel, the slower you experience time. Scientists have done some experiments to show that this is true.

For example, there was an experiment that used two clocks set to the exact same time. One clock stayed on Earth, while the other flew in an airplane (going in the same direction Earth rotates).

After the airplane flew around the world, scientists compared the two clocks. The clock on the fast-moving airplane was slightly behind the clock on the ground. So, the clock on the airplane was traveling slightly slower in time than 1 second per second.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Can we use time travel in everyday life?

We can't use a time machine to travel hundreds of years into the past or future. That kind of time travel only happens in books and movies. But the math of time travel does affect the things we use every day.

For example, we use GPS satellites to help us figure out how to get to new places. (Check out our video about how GPS satellites work .) NASA scientists also use a high-accuracy version of GPS to keep track of where satellites are in space. But did you know that GPS relies on time-travel calculations to help you get around town?

GPS satellites orbit around Earth very quickly at about 8,700 miles (14,000 kilometers) per hour. This slows down GPS satellite clocks by a small fraction of a second (similar to the airplane example above).

GPS satellites orbit around Earth at about 8,700 miles (14,000 kilometers) per hour. Credit: GPS.gov

However, the satellites are also orbiting Earth about 12,550 miles (20,200 km) above the surface. This actually speeds up GPS satellite clocks by a slighter larger fraction of a second.

Here's how: Einstein's theory also says that gravity curves space and time, causing the passage of time to slow down. High up where the satellites orbit, Earth's gravity is much weaker. This causes the clocks on GPS satellites to run faster than clocks on the ground.

The combined result is that the clocks on GPS satellites experience time at a rate slightly faster than 1 second per second. Luckily, scientists can use math to correct these differences in time.

If scientists didn't correct the GPS clocks, there would be big problems. GPS satellites wouldn't be able to correctly calculate their position or yours. The errors would add up to a few miles each day, which is a big deal. GPS maps might think your home is nowhere near where it actually is!

In Summary:

Yes, time travel is indeed a real thing. But it's not quite what you've probably seen in the movies. Under certain conditions, it is possible to experience time passing at a different rate than 1 second per second. And there are important reasons why we need to understand this real-world form of time travel.

If you liked this, you may like:

Time Travel Example 2021: If I Could Travel Back in Time

After thinking about the whole thing that occurred to me, to others, and to the world I would change, my life decision, police brutality, and the coronavirus. First, I’d travel back in time to change the people I’ve associated with, a life decision that tried to hold me back. Second, stopping police brutality to save the lives of many African Americans who have been wrongly stripped of their lives. Then, I’d change the deadly outbreak that took the lives of many loved ones and keeping others safe. The world is divided by decisions, viruses, and changes to be made where lives have been stipped, people being obstructed, and loved ones suffering. All in all, I’d travel back in time to change my life decision, police brutality, and the coronavirus to save a life.

I would travel back in time to change the people I’ve associated with, a life decision that tried to inhibit me from success. People you might call friends might not actually be friends of yours, and they might have bad intentions. My past decisions on the friends I’ve associated with have made me look more at people and not be too quick to be a friend. People who call you a friend and may not be real friends and I learned that, as well as they might not be true friends of yours. To this day, I’m trying not to be quick to make friends because of past decisions and I’ve learned to look from different perspectives because if you do something for them and they come at you in a fake way they aren’t your friends.

Police officers use aggressive defense, and they need to change the way they look at others of a different race, while more of them are getting hurt. Life is valuable and police brutality has been the cause of a lot of black lives being wrongly taken. Those who didn’t do anything wrong were hurt, and the brutality they faced was unacceptable. Those people are no longer here because the police didn’t think and instead chose to do whatever they wanted. Violence is not always the answer, and an act of it took someone’s life, aside from that putting an end to brutality could end the fall of innocent lives. Police brutality has been a raging issue, and it needs to be brought to an end.

Before the coronavirus, there was once a sense of normality in the world. I’d travel back in time to prevent the virus from hitting the world and killing a lot of citizens, as well as shutting down the world. The virus came in and took the lives of many loved ones, the cases are still high and people are still dying. citizens didn’t know about the virus, but the people who are supposed to keep us safe were aware of it and didn’t do anything until the virus got worse. I would travel back in time and work to stop the virus before it spread and hurt people as it did.

In the end, after thinking about everything I’d go back in time and change my life decision, police brutality, and the coronavirus. Changing the decision will benefit me, but it will open my eyes to the real world and the way how people really are. Police brutality is a major issue, and I’d go back in time to change the life of someone who was brutalized by the police by speaking out and stopping the cops. Traveling back to stop the coronavirus, will prevent others from dying and getting sick. To sum it up, I would travel back in time to change my life’s decision on friends, stop police brutality and the coronavirus.

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Time Travel: If I Could Travel Back in Time

• Word count: 590
• Category: Child time Travel

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If i could travel back in time i would learn as much as i can.I would go to my child hood, important dates in history, and try to find important political dates in history as well. and try to find where did my family came from.

I could enter a time machine, I would love to be able to go back in time when I was a child. Taking the knowledge I have now from the life lessons I have experienced, I would definitely be able to change my life and take advantage of things like my parents and a high school education. Your parents try to explain to you the importance of school and an education when you are a child, but it is only after when you become an adult that you realize the value and importance it has and how it will benefit your life and future. I guess you can say as a parent, you are going back in time with your children, except you are hoping that they will learn from your experiences and live their life how you wish you could have.

I would go back to 1774 when Marie Antoinette became queen, and show her my history books, and beg her to PLEASE avoid diamonds, ignore her brothers-in-law, keep a sharp eye on the owners of printing presses, show less favor to her son Louis Charles in front of poor Marie Therese so that the little girl isn’t so prone to bitterness, follow the advice of her mom and Joseph II, try to keep Catherine II on her good side, be more gracious to Gustav III when he visits her later on after his tour of Italy, take no guff whatsoever from those nasty women from Paris, and most of all, be much more understanding and supportive to her husband, who was really a very good guy in my opinion. If she took my advice, maybe that would change how things turned out in 1789, and the French Revolution either wouldn’t have taken place or at least wouldn’t have been so violent, bloody, unfair and irrational

Throughout the Famine years, nearly a million Irish arrived in the United States. Famine immigrants were the first big wave of poor refugees ever to arrive in the U.S. and Americans were simply overwhelmed. Upon arrival in America, the Irish found the going to be quite tough. With no one to help them, they immediately settled into the lowest rung of society and waged a daily battle for survival. The roughest welcome of all would be in Boston, Massachusetts, an Anglo-Saxon city with a population of about 115,000. It was a place run by descendants of English Puritans, men who could proudly recite their lineage back to 1620 and the Mayflower ship. Now, some two hundred thirty years later, their city was undergoing nothing short of an unwanted “social revolution” as described by Ephraim Peabody, member of an old Yankee family. In 1847, the first big year of Famine emigration, the city was swamped with 37,000 Irish Catholics arriving by sea and land

if i could bring the knowledge from the past to the present life wounld be so hard or maybe it wouldnt . We dont know what will happen with our fate, maybe its destiny for us to fail, world needs ditch diggers too. but we will never know but we should always try to succsess in life or you can just go with the flow and see what happens.

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Biden bounces back from bad debate with energetic Raleigh rally

Stephen Fowler

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at a post-debate campaign rally on June 28, 2024 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Last night President Biden and Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. President Donald Trump faced off in the first presidential debate of the 2024 campaign. Allison Joyce/Getty Images hide caption

RALEIGH, N.C. — Hours after a disappointing debate performance that had some Democrats openly contemplate his removal from the ticket, President Joe Biden delivered an energetic campaign speech in North Carolina that attempted to quell those fears.

Speaking to a crowd of roughly 2,000 supporters in Raleigh, Biden reiterated his belief that former President Donald Trump is bad for the country on issues like abortion and the economy.

The president highlighted false claims Trump repeatedly made during the debate and acknowledged his own poor performance that led some Democrats to panic minutes into the face off.

Democrats struggle to respond to Biden debate performance

“I know I’m not a young man,” Biden said to cheers. “I don’t walk as easy as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to, but I know what I do know: I know how to tell the truth!”

Biden added that he would not be running for a second term if he did not believe "with all my heart and soul I can do this."

"Yes you can," the crowd chanted in response.

Biden sounded raspy and confused at Thursday's 90-minute debate. His campaign said he had a cold, but the performance highlighted concerns about his age and fitness to serve another four years as commander in chief.

But a day later, still with a cough and a slightly hoarse voice, Biden campaigned as if were any other Friday on the campaign trail.

He hammered Trump as an extremist on abortion rights and a threat to the future of American democracy if elected again. Using a teleprompter and feeding off the energy of the crowd, he attacked his opponent in ways that were missing from the debate stage.

"That is what is at stake in America this election: your freedom, your democracy, America itself is at stake," he said.

4 takeaways from the first presidential debate

Biden narrowly lost North Carolina and is investing heavily in the swing state this year as a state to flip, and voters who came to watch him speak were undeterred by the debate's under par performance.

"Last night was hard to watch," 56-year-old Simone Langely said after the rally finished. "Because you could tell that it was a little late for Joe and things just didn't go like I thought they should."

Still, she said nothing could make her support waver: "That was Joe Biden today, he hit on some very strong points and democracy is on the line."

The campaign announced Friday morning that it saw the best grassroots fundraising hours in this election cycle come immediately before and after the debate, as cable news panels, opinion columnists and other left-leaning media panned his abilities and speculated about ways to replace him as the nominee.

But Biden's message, and his speech on Friday that ended with the Tom Petty song "I Won't Back Down," is that he is not going anywhere.

How Democrats could replace Biden as presidential candidate before November

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Jeff Mason is a White House Correspondent for Reuters. He has covered the presidencies of Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden and the presidential campaigns of Biden, Trump, Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain. He served as president of the White House Correspondents’ Association in 2016-2017, leading the press corps in advocating for press freedom in the early days of the Trump administration. His and the WHCA's work was recognized with Deutsche Welle's "Freedom of Speech Award." Jeff has asked pointed questions of domestic and foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong Un. He is a winner of the WHCA's “Excellence in Presidential News Coverage Under Deadline Pressure" award and co-winner of the Association for Business Journalists' "Breaking News" award. Jeff began his career in Frankfurt, Germany as a business reporter before being posted to Brussels, Belgium, where he covered the European Union. Jeff appears regularly on television and radio and teaches political journalism at Georgetown University. He is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and a former Fulbright scholar.

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Historic win for far right in French first-round vote

Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN) party scored historic gains to win the first round of France's parliamentary election, but the final outcome will depend on days of alliance-building before next week's run-off vote.