ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Quantum mechanics of time travel

Quantum mechanics is a big, fancy word that means the science of tiny things. Imagine that you have a toy car, and you want to know how it moves. You could say that the car is made up of lots and lots of tiny parts, called atoms, and that those atoms make the car move. That's kind of what quantum mechanics is all about - studying the way tiny things work.

Now, time travel is when you go back or forward in time, like when you watch a movie set in the past, or when you dream about the future. But in real life, we can't really go back or forward in time. Or can we?

One theory in quantum mechanics is that if you go back in time and change something, it could create a bunch of new possibilities, or alternate timelines. Imagine that you're playing a game where you get to make different choices, and each choice leads to a different outcome. That's kind of like what the quantum mechanics of time travel is all about. If you go back in time and change something, it creates a new timeline, or a new version of reality.

But here's the thing - scientists aren't really sure if time travel is possible or not. Some say that it could be, but others say it's impossible. And even if it is possible, it might not work the way we think it does. It's all very confusing and complicated, which is why scientists are still trying to figure it out.

So, to sum it up - quantum mechanics is the science of tiny things, and the quantum mechanics of time travel is the study of whether it's possible to go back or forward in time and change things. It's a big, mysterious topic that scientists are still trying to understand, and there's no easy answer. But it's still fun to think about!