Time Dilation

[arturo7]

The faster you travel, the younger you arrive.

 

[day_trippr]

Well, duh.

That duh'd, you'll see me cruising the highways at 85mph.

55? 65? Ain't nobody got time for dat!

Cheers!

 

[hunter_le five]

My couch is a time machine. I sit down, and 3 episodes of garbage later, I've arrived approximately one-hour in the future. Too bad it only travels in one direction.

 

[unionrdr]

I still think the theory is wrong about traveling at light speed for one year, you come back & all you know are old or dead. I think they messed that one up.

 

[hunter_le five]

Time stops when travelling at the speed of light, so I'm not sure how one would travel at that speed for a year.

Now, if you are talking about one year Earth time... well you would be 1 light year away, and everyone you know would be one year older.

If you travelled for one-year at NEAR-light-speed, in which your relative time still progresses but at a much slower rate, then the phenomenon you are referring to applies.

It all makes my head hurt just thinking about it....

 

[feinbera]

Physics is weird. For instance, the phenomenon when you're out with your buddies, and your beer is clearly disappearing from your glass faster than you're drinking it, even though there's not a hole in the bottom of the pint or a puddle forming on the floor. I think it's quantum tunneling.

(they've actually observed time dilation on space shuttle flights, measuring with insanely precise clocks; the astronauts experience a couple seconds less time than ground control – you have to travel thousands of times faster than is feasible with current aerospace technology to experience something as dramatic as "I just took a quick jaunt out to Alpha Centauri and now my great grandkids are seventy years in the grave" scenario)

 

[myelo]

Time stops when travelling at the speed of light, so I'm not sure how one would travel at that speed for a year.

You can't travel at the speed of light for any amount to time. As you, or any object with mass, approaches the speed of light your mass becomes infinite and so the amount of energy needed to move you also become infinite.

But if you were one of those really skinny fashion models, you might could do it.

 

[mattd2]

Time stops when travelling at the speed of light, so I'm not sure how one would travel at that speed for a year.

Now, if you are talking about one year Earth time... well you would be 1 light year away, and everyone you know would be one year older.

If you travelled for one-year at NEAR-light-speed, in which your relative time still progresses but at a much slower rate, then the phenomenon you are referring to applies.

It all makes my head hurt just thinking about it....

Time relative to yourself does not stop, you continue on your merry way as if nothing was any different. What those people who will be dead when you get back see is you frozen in time... but traveling away very fast????????? confusing??????

You can't travel at the speed of light for any amount to time. As you, or any object with mass, approaches the speed of light your mass becomes infinite and so the amount of energy needed to move you also become infinite.

But if you were one of those really skinny fashion models, you might could do it.

The amount of energy required to "move you is zero (assuming no air resistance), but the amount of energy required to accelerate you faster to approaching the speed of light becomes infinite.

 

[unionrdr]

That's why they're working on this new theory where the craft is in a magnetic bubble, creating a venturi effect that makes space move around you. Hinted at in the later Star Trek movie where a young scotty never thought of space as the thing that was moving. So weight becomes a moot point. They also claim the flying saucers at area 51 have wormhole generators. That one is interesting.

 

[mrbrew]

What if your travelling at the speed of light and you turn the headlights of your spacecraft on?

 

[unionrdr]

Not a lot, I'd imagine. They also say that time slows down as you near light speed, then stops very briefly before going backwards. Also illustrated on Star Trek.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Could "time dilation" include "slow motion perception?" The perceived slowing of time during extreme and/or life threatening events. To the bystander, times passes normally, but to the victim/event participant(s) time seems to move more slowly. Does this qualify for "Time dilation?"
Regards, GF.

 

[arturo7]

GF, interesting thought but, no. Your example is a matter of human perception, not high speed travel.