How Things Work: A Brief History of Reality
BOOK II: The Power of Three (#58. "Time Dilation")
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Tuesday, November 22, 2022
"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once."
– Albert Einstein
PREFACE
If you love science-fiction books and movies about time travel, you need to thank Albert Einstein. He literally made it possible, from a rational perspective. The key to time travel is Time Dilation. Because time and space are not absolute, but relative factors in the universe, “time” as we normally experience it is not “real,” in the sense that it is not consistent or constant. Time, like space, is relative. This means it changes according to other factors, such as motion, speed, and gravity. Essentially meaning that time is not always moving “forward” in a “linear” fashion the way we “perceive” that it does. Therefore, time travel is theoretically possible.
“Now that human beings have actually entered into space we have begun to deal with the ‘real’ effects of this once ‘theoretical’ possibility.”
The difference between science-fiction and time dilation is that time dilation is real, in the empirical sense. Now that human beings have actually entered into space we have begun to deal with the “real” effects of this once “theoretical” possibility. While time travel may still be theoretical, time dilation has already been empirically validated as physically and objectively “real.”
Here’s how it works.
CONSIDERATION #58 – Time Dilation
Time Dilation
Through the Theory of Special Relativity, Einstein establishes a fundamental link between space and time resulting in a universe composed of three spatial dimensions (up/down, left/right, forward/backward) and a fourth dimension called time.
According to Einstein, these 4 dimensions comprise a single entity he called the space-time continuum. How you experienced the space-time continuum was highly dependent on your relationship to motion, particularly speed.
As the speed of an object moving in a straight-line increased and became closer to the actual speed of light, the more the “time aberrations” related to the speed of light become apparent. Observations regarding space and time could be completely different depending on the speed the observer was moving. Perhaps the most bizarre example of this is Time Dilation.
“As an object increases in speed, time slows down relative to it.”
Essentially, for the speed of light to remain constant for both a stationary observer, and an observer moving close to the speed of light, something else must change or become relative as opposed to constant; what changes is time. As an object increases in speed, time slows down relative to it. This is true at any change in speed although it is virtually unrecognizable at normal, or average, speeds such as walking, running, driving, or even flying in a plane. However, at speeds close to the speed of light the time differentiations become substantial.
It turns out that as an object moves with relativistic speeds a "strange" thing seems to happen to its time as observed by "us" the stationary observer. What we see happen is that the "clock" in motion slows down according to our clock, therefore we read two different times. Which time is correct??? well they both are because time is not absolute but is relative, it depends on the reference frame.
Let's look at the following classic example. There is a set of twins, one an astronaut, the other works for mission control of NASA. The astronaut leaves on a deep space trip traveling at 95% the speed of light. Upon returning the astronaut’s clock has measured ten years, so the astronaut has aged 10 years. However, when the astronaut reunites with his earth-bound twin, the astronaut sees that the twin has aged 32 years!
University of Mississippi QuarkNet – Time Dilation – August 22, 2019
However, it is important to remember that Time Dilation is not just a thought experiment. Even normal travel conditions affect the time differential enough to be measured by atomic clocks:
Unlike the Twin Paradox, time dilation isn’t a thought experiment or a hypothetical concept – it’s real. The 1971 Hafele-Keating experiments proved as much, when two atomic clocks were flown on planes traveling in opposite directions. The relative motion actually had a measurable impact and created a time difference between the two clocks. This has also been confirmed in other physics experiments...
Neel V. Patel – “Would you really age more slowly on a spaceship at close to light speed?”
Time Dilation was biologically confirmed in 2016 when after spending almost a year at the International Space Station, NASA found that astronaut Scott Kelly had aged less than his real identical twin brother Mark. Although not moving even close to the speed of light, time had noticeably slowed down for the space traveler.
“…speed is not the only factor that can affect time.”
As strange as the concept of time dilation is, speed is not the only factor that can affect time. In his General Theory of Relativity, Einstein would introduce another force that affected the flow of time, gravity.
POSTSCRIPT
Time dilation reflects the relative nature of time. Einstein’s influence on our conception of what time is and how it works changed not only our conception of time, but of reality itself. This once “stable” and agreed upon factor of human reality was essentially shattered. If time was not real, what was? Because, if time was an illusion related to space, then space was also connected to that illusion.
“Essentially, Einstein reduces Descartes’ understanding of physical reality into an oxymoron.”
It would not be enough for Einstein to dispel us of our cherished connection to the comfort of time; he would also sever our empirical relationship with space as well. Einstein was about to unravel Descartes’ certainty about what he called “body.” Can an objective universe, or body, be empirically objective if the “objects” in it cannot be objectively measured in time and space? Essentially, Einstein reduces Descartes’ understanding of physical reality into an oxymoron. The rationally empirical reality of classical physics was beginning to crumble. However, a new quantum physics representing a new quantum reality was about to emerge.
Next week we will consider the spatial consequences of Relativity Theory on the traditional empirical view of reality by considering the spatial aberration called Length Contraction.
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