Suppose that a man was in fact...

abducted by aliens. Suppose he was taken to their world and was going to be appointed emissary/ envoy for this/these higher alien races. And suppose he was there learning their culture for quite a few years.

Suppose this man was abducted in the 19th century; what would be the chances, given the speed of interstellar travel, that when this man is brought back to earth in a time entirely different from his own. Would this make sense?

The question im trying to have answered here involves time and the speed of light, if given that in relative earth years the man is on the alien world for 20 years. would it be wrong to assume that it would be a few hundred years between when he is first abducted and when he is returned to earth?

Well, are we assuming the alien's fastest speed is the speed of light, or do they have wormholes or warp speed or portals or something?

Well, are we assuming the alien's fastest speed is the speed of light, or do they have wormholes or warp speed or portals or something?

hadn't considered that...
Okay, add in that they have a sub-space system which allows them to travel slower than the speed of light, but bypass sections of space at a time.

Technically no. But it really depends on how they traveled from here to there, and back again.

If they followed the straight line idea and flew to their planet through space, there are limitations to how fast you can go and so on and so forth. If they used the wormhole theory, then they could get from here to there and back quickly, leaving the actual amount of time spent on their planet to be the main question.

Since this is alien technology we are really discussing here, there is no real plausible answer, as we are limited to what we know of our own limitations.

Considering Andromeda, the closest galaxy near us, is roughly 2 light years, and the first habitable planet near us is roughly 20 light years away, well...

You can figure out the math.

Considering Andromeda, the closest galaxy near us, is roughly 2 light years, and the first habitable planet near us is roughly 20 light years away, well...

You can figure out the math.

Not really, which is why i came to SP. i don't know math to this level.

Supposing he's constantly on a moving ship, I suppose it's possible. I'm not at the level to find the exact dilation rate for certain speed levels, but I guess just read this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilati...ace_flight

Not really, which is why i came to SP. i don't know math to this level.

Well, a light year is 9.4605284 × 10^15 meters and is best explained as the length light travels in one year. So 20 light years would be 20 x 9.4605284 x 10^15 or 1.89210568 x 10^17 meters. This is translated to 10000 or so billion meters(near to a trillion). So to answer your question, if the aliens knew how to travel at light speed and can travel that speed all the way back to say their home planet 20 light years away, it would be the same as 20 human years. So technically if they went back to their home world, stopped for a rest stop and came back, then 40 years would have gone by. It all depends on the distance you are going. Mind you there probably is a better way to travel the universe faster than the speed of light, we just haven't really gotten around to working out the technical way of achieving either space travel. Another good theory to add to the space travel idea is that the aliens may have a device that could simply teleport them or perhaps alter the matter around them to get them to a certain spot faster. Or maybe they even have a time machine. There are way too many variables here.

Wouldn't it also depend if their planet is really really close or really really far? o_o We also don;t know how the mass space travel at a super speed unfathomable by man effects his body. for all you know, moving that fast could kill us entirely or age us o_O