Wormholes

In the article “Are Wormholes Tunnels for Time Travel?” by Stefan Lovgren he explians that wormholes are mysterious holes in the universe they are similar to black holes except for the fact that they do not have a great gravitational pull . Which leaves the question that maybe they can be used as passages to another dimension or universe or maybe just a short cut? Stefan Lovgren explains a worm hole as,”… theoretical shortcuts through space and time connect[ing] two distant points in space, like a worm tunnel through an apple” (1). The idea behind it is that if you can find a wormhole you can travel through it to get to a destination before a ray of light would. But according to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity nothing can move faster than the speed of light, which means that when you enter a wormhole, if this is possible at all, you are not traveling faster than light you are just taking a shorter distance. They are said to stay open by a form of energy that has a very small density this energy is called Casimir energy. Richard Gott a Professor at Princeton says “...envisions the wormhole effect as being like that of a mirrored garden ball. When looking through the wormhole, however, one would not see a reflection of that same garden, but instead a garden on, say, Alpha Centauri, the star closest to our solar system.”(Lovgren 1). So the idea of traveling through a wormhole is very plausible but the weight of a wormhole limits them to only occur in outer space.



I thought this article was great in the way that it explained wormholes considering they are abstract, so it provided real examples such as the garden ball, to help grasp the idea. It also included scientific reasoning by comparing the hypothesis of worm holes to the ideas of quantum physics, which helps reason the chances of the idea being realistic. It also included quotes from very well respected physicist such as Richard Gott. They also included the ideas behind Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, that go against the ideas of the wormhole theory such as the density cannot be below zero.

Lovgren, Stefan. "Are Wormholes Tunnels for Time Travel?." National Geographic News 16 Sep. 2005: 1- 2. Web. 15 Apr 2010. .