Gravity as a wave

[rhino]

So high speed slows time?
Sorry I usualy need the cliff notes version of this stuff to understand
Pictures and diagrams help too

Yes, it's a big part of Einstein's body of work collectively referred to as "relativistic effects."

When a body moves faster, several things happen when compared to an identical body (i.e. object or mass) that is in a fixed position relative to the moving body, with each effect increasing with increasing speed:

• Time pass more slowly for the moving object
• The mass of the moving body increases
• the length dimension of the moving object (parallel to the direction of motion) decreases

A classic thought experiment is having two twins, one sitting on a bench and the other riding bicycle at high speed (I think 10% of the speed of light) for a few minutes. When the riding twin stops, he's an old man, but his twin is still young. In practice, the same thing has been done with atomic clocks, confirming that time dilation actually occurs.

Another implication is that as a body approaches the speed of light, its mass grows and approaches infinite mass. To increase the velocity further (i.e. accelerate), the force required becomes infinitely large. Since it's impossible to exert a force that big, it's impossible for anything with mass to reach the speed of light.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Yes, high speed slows time. Sort of.

What's really happening is that time is relative to one or the other. If I'm riding in a car at 60mph, that speed is relative to the earth's surface. Relative to the car, my speed is zero (I'm stationary in the seat). Relative to the Sun, my speed is thousands of MPH.

Being stationary is an illusion created by two objects moving at the same speed relative to the same thing. In reality, we are all hurtling through space at thousands of miles per hour. The sun itself is moving at high speed relative to SOME other star somewhere, right?

Is it the case that a high speed clock orbiting the earth is "slower"? Or is it that being closer to the gravity of earth actually speeds things up? Since we're talking about the two clocks relative to each other only, these could both be true. The space clock is "slow" only relative to the one on earth, and the terrestrial clock is "fast" only relative to the one in space.

A third clock at a different place in the universe might be faster than both, slower than both, or faster than one and slower than the other. And that "faster than one, slower than the other" isn't constant either. The "slow" clock might become the "fast" clock at different positions in the universe.

In other words, if you ranked three clocks in the order in which they appeared to be fast or slower, it would depend on on which clock you are using as reference, AND that ranking might not be consistent.

Wait, where does Daylight Saving Time fit in to all of this?

 

[eldirector]

Wait, where does Daylight Saving Time fit in to all of this?

Conservation of Time.

As long as we "fall back" after springing forward the same amount, the total value for Time is conserved, and the equation balances. Springing forward twice is not mathematically possible.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Conservation of Time.

As long as we "fall back" after springing forward the same amount, the total value for Time is conserved, and the equation balances. Springing forward twice is not mathematically possible.

What if a clock on earth was "springing forward" while at the same time, a clock orbiting the earth was "falling back"? Relative to the space clock, would the earth clock have sprung forward twice? Or, since the orbiting clock was actually slowing down relative to the earth clock, would the earth clock be springing forward more than 2x, or less than 2x because the orbiting clock was falling back more slowly than the earth clock was springing forward??

 

[Spear Dane]

Conservation of Time.

As long as we "fall back" after springing forward the same amount, the total value for Time is conserved, and the equation balances. Springing forward twice is not mathematically possible.

Thanks for adding reputation to this user. May you be lucky enough to receive the same Reputation back in turn.

 

[ATOMonkey]

A number of experiments have been completed with previously synchronized atomic clocks with one fixed on Earth and the other orbiting at high speeds. The moving clocks are always behind their "stationary" counterparts, which is strong evidence supporting the idea of time dilation.

Or strong evidence that speed and/or gravity affects atomic decay.

That's the fun part about relativity! Does time change or does our way or perceiving/measuring time change?

 

[ATOMonkey]

This has been proven by a huge body of experimentation and engineering, most visibly by the GPS system, which would quickly become useless without correcting for the time dilation experienced by the satellites.

All we know for sure is that instruments used to measure time reported differently. Does that mean time changed, or did the environment affect the instruments?

If you hold that your instrument is infallible then time must change. If you hold that time is constant, then your instrument must have changed.

 

[ATOMonkey]

Yes, it's a big part of Einstein's body of work collectively referred to as "relativistic effects."

When a body moves faster, several things happen when compared to an identical body (i.e. object or mass) that is in a fixed position relative to the moving body, with each effect increasing with increasing speed:

• Time pass more slowly for the moving object
• The mass of the moving body increases
• the length dimension of the moving object (parallel to the direction of motion) decreases

A classic thought experiment is having two twins, one sitting on a bench and the other riding bicycle at high speed (I think 10% of the speed of light) for a few minutes. When the riding twin stops, he's an old man, but his twin is still young. In practice, the same thing has been done with atomic clocks, confirming that time dilation actually occurs.

Another implication is that as a body approaches the speed of light, its mass grows and approaches infinite mass. To increase the velocity further (i.e. accelerate), the force required becomes infinitely large. Since it's impossible to exert a force that big, it's impossible for anything with mass to reach the speed of light.

Which is why we need to conduct high velocity experiments in space! Again, since velocity is a relative term, and is affected by gravity (when referencing "light speed"), we know that the effects of speed will be different inside of a gravity well, than outside of it.

Just like mach number is influenced by atmospheric conditions.

And just like the speed of sound, I hypothesize that there are many things we do not know about light speed until we actually try to achieve it.