Explain · analogy · Like I'm five version
How to make a time machine in terms of a very slow lift
Making a time machine is just like waiting inside a very slow lift that only travels in one direction.
When you get into a lift and press a button, you start a journey to a different floor. A time machine does the same thing. You get inside and the world outside starts to change while you stay put. You are moving forward through time just like the lift moves up a building, but the machine is so slow that you hardly notice you are travelling at all.
Inside the lift, you can see the numbers change on the wall as you go past each floor. If the lift stopped at every single floor, you would watch the world change slowly as people get on and off. You might see a rainy morning turn into a sunny afternoon while you are still stuck inside the metal box. Even though you are sitting still, you are arriving at a time that is different from when you started.
It is a funny way to travel because you cannot go back down to the lobby once you have reached the top floor. You have to wait for the doors to open, and by then, the day has already moved on without you. You are always moving towards the future, even if you are just standing still and waiting for the doors to chime. You cannot skip any floors, so you have to experience every single second of the ride.
Where the analogy breaks downA lift moves through space to reach a destination, while time travel would move through history to reach a different date.