Time Dilation: the cause of spookiness
“Time moves slower for a moving clock as compared to a stationary one taken as a reference.” This phenomenon is called “Time Dilation”.
Did you know that the Astronauts in space station age around a few microseconds slower as compared to if they were there on Earth?
Why does that happen and does it have any significant consequence?
Reason:
The International Space Station is revolving around the Earth at a whopping speed of 4 km/sec. Think for a second how quick it sounds!!
Well, it is nothing when compared to other space objects. The Voyager-2 was moving well above 15 km/sec, last time we checked.
But how does it truly slow down the aging? Well, the answer lies in a seemingly simple but highly talked about result of Einstein’s Special Relativity.
It says that the more you approach the speed of light, the slower the time passes with respect to a reference (say Earth). This is the case of Time Dilation due to higher velocities.
There’s another type of Time Dilation i.e. due the SPACE TIME BENDING. Massive celestial bodies bends the space time in such a way that time tend to pass slower. This way, the time will pass slower for the person standing on the ground floor as compared to the one at the top of Burj Khalifa.
It all feels so weird, however the cases we are describing here are really insignificant and can only be verified by highly advanced scientific equipments.
However, the effect feels more pronounced when you’re near a neutron star or a Black Hole. You must have seen the movie INTERSTELLAR, where every minute on the planet orbiting Black Hole GARGANTUA is equal to 7 years on the planet Earth. This might seem like exaggeration to you, however this is actually the case. The Special Relativity explains how the mass of the Black Hole warps the space time continuum in such a way that it slows down, not only the light, but the Time itself. That’s the beauty and wonders of how Massive Celesetial Bodies change the objects and events that we on Earth take as constants.
TWIN BROTHER PARADOX
This dilation is the explanation of the twin brother paradox.
Say, two twin brothers are 25 years of age. One becomes an astronaut and at that time we found a way to travel to Black Hole. You hop on the star ship and ride towards the black hole to study it while you’re brother is staying on Earth itself. When you’d come back, you’ll see that the time that you considered to be mere5–6 years have translated to 50–60 years in Earth’s reference.
You are 32 years old while you’re brother is celebrating his 72nd birthday with his great grandchildren.
This is the TWIN BROTHER PARADOX.
Well we can also justify the immortality of God if we consider him Omnipotent through the same concept of Special Relativity. Let’s leave it to your imagination now.
