Science question...

p0ss3s3d

p0ss3s3d

p0ss3s3d

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I remember reading a while ago an article/theory which proposed travelling above a certain speed for a period would essentially move/adjust you time relative to everyone else. (I think it was something like 0.0000.....01s for every year you spend at or above this speed) and your essentially left out of sync (very slightly) with everyone else?

Can anyone recall the name of the idea/priciples? Feel free to discuss this idea too.


p0ss3s3d
 
Isn't that part of Einsteins theory of Relativity, where the speed of light is constant and therefore time isn't?

EDIT: Darn, beaten to it with the Special Relativity link.
 
JayMax said:
Ok, (genuine question) is this myth or not: a ship that circumnavigates the globe, with a clock on the top of the mast and a clock on the deck. Do they read different times after 1 trip around the world?
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If the clock was accurate enough, and we're talking minuscule amounts of time, then yes, they would. Due to the differing mavity between the two clocks (only a tiny change in the mavity, hence the tiny time variation), one would progress through time faster than the other.

Edit - And the variation in speed between the two will also add to the effect, still only a tiny amount though.
 
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the clock on the mast will be traveling faster, so yes it will read a different time. This has actually been done with two atomic clocks, one on a plane going around earth and another on the ground. They were off by a few nanoseconds.
 
Thanks, so is the change due to less mavity or due to more speed? Two answers there, but I'm not a physicist. Or is the more speed and less mavity inherently interlinked?
 
JayMax said:
Thanks, so is the change due to less mavity or due to more speed? Two answers there, but I'm not a physicist. Or is the more speed and less mavity inherently interlinked?
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Either will have the same effect, I can't comment on how much each will change the time, but both will cause it.
 
Jiminy_Seal said:
the clock on the mast will be traveling faster, so yes it will read a different time. This has actually been done with two atomic clocks, one on a plane going around earth and another on the ground. They were off by a few nanoseconds.
Click to expand...

I thought it was one on a satalite and one on a plane. But having said that the atomic clock used for GPS are regularly updated because even they arn't accurate enough to give true readings after a few months of running - I wonder if it more to do with orbit deviation than inaccurate clocks??
Either way its a incredibly tiny amount of time involved.
 
If I remember correctly, if I travelled at half the speed of light and I made a journey lasting a week, an several centuries would've passed; although I would've only aged a week. Everyone else would've aged as normal etc etc (you'd also turn into a funny semi wave on your journey; blue when travelling one way, red the other. It's too late for me to figure which way around. Yawn. ;)

But in theory if you actually made it past the light barrier (you'd be a wave) and time would reverse.
 
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p0ss3s3d said:
If I remember correctly, if I travelled at half the speed of light and I made a journey lasting a week, an several centuries would've passed; although I would've only aged a week. Everyone else would've aged as normal etc etc (you'd also turn into a funny semi wave on your journey; blue when travelling one way, red the other. It's too late for me to figure which way around. Yawn. ;)

But in theory if you actually made it past the light barrier (you'd be a wave) and time would reverse.
Click to expand...

What? Crash talk I say :D
 
p0ss3s3d said:
If I remember correctly, if I travelled at half the speed of light and I made a journey lasting a week, an several centuries would've passed; although I would've only aged a week. Everyone else would've aged as normal etc etc (you'd also turn into a funny semi wave on your journey; blue when travelling one way, red the other. It's too late for me to figure which way around. Yawn. ;)

But in theory if you actually made it past the light barrier (you'd be a wave) and time would reverse.
Click to expand...

You wouldn't turn into a blue or red wave yourself, but to someone observing you, your colour would change due to red-shift. If you are moving away from some observer, you would appear to be more red than you actually are, and if you're moving towards then, you'd appear more blue. It's basically the Doppler effect, but with light, not sound.
 
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