I rewatched “Interstellar” and the time dilation dilemma makes my brain hurt. If a change in gravity alters time then wouldn’t you feel a difference entering/exiting said fake planet?
In: Planetary Science
Consider a very tall tower on earth..
Now take 2 identical clocks and place one on top of the tower and keep the other at ground level and let them sit for a bit.
If you go to the top of the tower and observe the clock there and then go to the bottom of the tower and observe the clock there, they will both act exactly like a normal clock, each tick measures one second.
However, after bringing them back together the clock from the top will be a slight slight amount behind the clock at the bottom! This is not in some change that happens to the clock, but the fact that one second at the top of the tower does not equal one second at the bottom of the tower.
This is because the top of the tower actually experiences time a bit more slowly than the bottom because the top of the tower experiences less gravity!
Now imagine the bottom of the tower is the gravity well (where gravity is higher) and the top of the tower is the ship (where gravity is lower). Both clocks/people will each individually experience one second per tick, as if they were both in the same place, but their seconds are not actually the same when you compare them. Crazy huh!
For this reason astronauts are actually a bit younger than their earth bound coworkers!
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