Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: Adam Murphy on 23/04/2020 15:50:33

Title: What would happen in a wormhole?
Post by: Adam Murphy on 23/04/2020 15:50:33

Wally asks:

"If you go through a worm hole and come out safely 100 light years away would you be going faster than the speed of light, or would you come out of the worm hole 100 years later?"

What do you think?

Title: Re: What would happen in a wormhole?
Post by: Kryptid on 23/04/2020 16:43:16

Technically, neither. Although the distance in normal space from one wormhole mouth to the other may be 100 light-years, the throat can be very short (say, a few meters). So if each wormhole mouth is at an equal gravitational potential and stationary relative to each other, then the journey would only take as long as would be needed to travel those few meters. Alternatively, if each wormhole mouth is at a different gravitational potential (or moving at different velocities), it will have an impact on your travel time (relative to an outside observer). In fact, given the right circumstances, you can enter one mouth now and come out the other mouth in the past instead of in the future.