Guinness Book of World Records 2006, page 109.
Avdeyev also experienced the most time dilation by an individual. As a direct consequence of the time he has spent in low Earth orbit, traveling at around 17,000 mph relative to everyone else, he has essentially ‘time traveled’ 1/50th of a second into the future – consistent with Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.
Time travel is possible and has even made it into the Record book.
Here is a link and some excerpts that break it down really easily…
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/time/think.html
"Ever since Einstein revealed his special theory of relativity, we've known that time travel—at least moving forward through time—is possible.
We begin with a basic concept—one that sets the scene...
You're on a train that's moving forward at 50 mph. You throw a ball in the direction that the train is moving. Relative to you and the train, the ball leaves your hand traveling at 20 mph.
Question: From the point of view of someone standing alongside the tracks, how fast is the ball moving?
That's right—70 mph.
All you have to do is add the speed of the train (50 mph) and the speed of the ball (20 mph).
50 mph
+ 20 mph
70 mph
Part 2: The Speed of Light
OK. Everything so far makes sense. Let's move on to the speed of light for a moment.
In 1887 two American scientists performed a now-famous experiment. The experiment seemed to show that the speed of light was independent of motion. In other words, that light always traveled at the same speed: 186,000 miles per second. It didn't matter if the source of the light was moving or if the observer was moving.
There was another indication that the speed of light was constant, too—one that Einstein found especially difficult to ignore. James Clerk Maxwell, the mind behind electromagnetic theory, had developed equations that described the nature of electricity, magnetism, and even light. These equations, the predictions of which were confirmed by experiment, by the way, implied that light always traveled at the same speed.
Which brings us to the next question...
Again, you're on a train. This time, though, the train is moving much faster—at half the speed of light, or 93,000 mps (miles per second). And instead of throwing a ball, you turn on a flashlight.
Question: How fast is the light traveling relative to the observer standing alongside the tracks?
186,000 mps
That's right! Relative to the observer, the light is moving at 186,000 mps. Seems non-commonsensical, doesn't it? But this has proven to be true through many experiments over the years.
Here's our last question. This one's like the previous one, but with a twist. Again, you're on a train moving at 93,000 mps, and again, you turn on your flashlight.
Question: How fast does the light travel relative to you?
186,000 mps
Now you get the idea.
Relative to the man on the train, the light is moving ahead at 186,000 mps, just as it is for the observer outside the train. The speed of light remains constant for all observers.
Is there a solution to this paradox?
By now you probably understand the conflict: How is it possible that light always travels at the same speed, no matter how fast its source is moving? Einstein, when he was 16, thought about the same thing.
Are you familiar with the equation v=d/t? All it says is velocity (speed) equals distance traveled divided by time.
See the relationship between speed, distance and time?
If we use this equation in our first scenario—the one where you threw the ball—it works out fine. For you, within the train, as well as for someone standing by the tracks, we can calculate the speed of the ball by adding the distance the train traveled and the distance the ball traveled.
The equation does not work out so well in the second scenario, though, because we're dealing with the speed of light, so the "v" in the equation always has to be 186,000 miles per second.
Something has to give.
Question: What can we infer from what we've seen so far?
a. That the results of various experiments and that Maxwell's equations must be incorrect, and that the speed of light can vary, depending on the situation.
b. That time (and maybe even distance as well) is not the same for all observers.
Time Can Vary?
That's right! Contrary to what common sense tells us, time and distance are not fixed. This, too, is the assumption Einstein made.
In our second and third train examples, the speed of light turns out to be exactly the same for both you and the observer standing along the tracks because time, as measured by your watch, ticked along at a slower pace than time measured by the observer. Not only that, distance changed, too. For the observer, a one-foot ruler whizzing by on the train would have measured less than a foot.
The weird thing is that, for you on the train, time wouldn't seem to be moving slower and your ruler wouldn't be shorter—all would appear normal. However, time on the rest of the Earth would appear to be ticking along slower and its rulers would be shorter.
Now let's say you want to do some time traveling. You board a spaceship and take off for deep space.
The ship approaches the speed of light. Time for you seems to pass as it always has. It takes you about five seconds to tie your shoe. But to an observer on Earth (assuming he or she could watch you), you are moving at a snail's pace. It takes hours to tie your shoe.
Anyway, you continue on your journey. You slow down, stop, and accelerate back to Earth. You arrive home. You have aged two years during your flight. Two hundred years have passed on Earth. You have successfully traveled forward through time.
Now you want to go back? Sorry. According to relativity, you can only move through time in one direction."
