• Question: Can you freeze time and space

    Asked by joel2002 to Clare, Divya, Ian, Jess, Lewis on 17 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by freckleface4ever.
    • Photo: Ian Hands-Portman

      Ian Hands-Portman answered on 17 Mar 2014:

      Not as far as we know but we don’t everything about physics so it might be possible in the future.

    • Photo: Clare Nevin

      Clare Nevin answered on 17 Mar 2014:

      We definitely cannot freeze them but a lot of sci-fi topics are based on warping space and time. Space is the 3 dimensions that living things require for life, so up and down, left and right. If you tried to imagine living things on just the surface of a sphere like the earth alone, you could not. However, the 4th dimension of gravity can warp spacetime. Giant masses like the sun bend the space around them, pulling the planets towards them into orbit. Similarly, it could bend a beam of light – this is called gravitational lensing. Gravity also influences the passage of time: time on Earth is actually slightly slower than time in space. That’s all I can give on that subject!

    • Photo: Lewis Dean

      Lewis Dean answered on 17 Mar 2014:

      It’s not really my area (and physics is incredibly complicated!), but I think that Ian and Clare are right.

    • Photo: Divya Venkatesh

      Divya Venkatesh answered on 18 Mar 2014:

      This stuff makes my head hurt! It’s amazing though. Thanks Ian and Clare.

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