Time being relative has nothing to do with the solar year. Time is based on fundamental interactions in our universe, such as light. These change depending on speed and gravity, hence relativity.
Speed is also relative, in more ways than one, but not in the way you describe. First is galilean relativity, which basically says that as speed is always relative to something else. A rock in space alone has no speed – you need to compare it to another object to determine their speeds relative to one another. On earth, we usually compare to the ground, but of course that gives different results than comparing to the moon or to the inside of a car.
Einstein’s relativity takes the same warping from speed and gravity and applies them to both time and space, and since speed is based on time and space speed also warps.
Speed is relative as well.
Though I think you’re misunderstanding some things.
How fast something is going depends on the perspective of the observer.
We say something like “X is moving at Y kilometers per hour relative to us” for example.
Say someone on a rocket going .7 the speed of light (this is called C) relative to us, launches a missile going at .5 C relative to them straight ahead.
He sees the missile traveling at .5 C, but we do not see the missile going at 1.2 C, instead we see it going at 0.8889 C relative to us.
We agree that the missile is going faster than the rocket, we just disagree on how much faster.
You’re conflating different things are and also you have some incorrect assumptions. You’re fundamentally misunderstanding what relativity means and how we measure time.
First, time is not measured by the solar year. I have no idea where you got that from but it’s wrong. Time is measured by the second. A second is always a second no matter where you are. You could be in New Jersey or Australia or Mars or the Andromeda galaxy, you will always experience a second to be the exact same length of time. So when we say one of the Mars rovers drove at 50 meters per hour, that’s the exact same speed as 50 meters per hour on Earth because it’s the exact same second and the exact same meter and we’re measuring it from the perspective of the Mars rover itself.
Now this is not what you were asking about, but velocity *is* relative, just not in the way that you meant. Right now I’m standing still on Earth. From the frame of reference of Earth, my velocity is 0 because I’m standing still. But the Earth is traveling around the Sun at roughly 30 kilometers per second. That means from the frame of reference of the sun, my velocity is 30 kilometers per second, so my velocity is different depending on what you use as a reference point. There’s a lot more to relativity than this but that’s beyond the scope of this question
A solar year is a solar year whether you are on Earth or Mars. It takes the same amount of time. What changes is that on Mars it takes longer for the planet to orbit around the sun. But if you lived on Mars you’d still age at the same rate.
Speed is the same, whether you measure in kilometers per hour or miles per second, you are still going the same speed, just the units you use change. So yes you could change units based on a martian year vs. an earth year, but a kilometer is still a kilometer, a mile is still a mile.
Time becomes relative when you are talking about traveling at super high speeds and experiencing relativistic effects, but thats only compared to another frame of reference. If you are on a planet traveling .99999 the speed of light relative to earth, you will experience the same distance and time on YOUR planet because thats the frame of reference you are in.
Time being relative has nothing to do with the solar year. Time is based on fundamental interactions in our universe, such as light. These change depending on speed and gravity, hence relativity.
Speed is also relative, in more ways than one, but not in the way you describe. First is galilean relativity, which basically says that as speed is always relative to something else. A rock in space alone has no speed – you need to compare it to another object to determine their speeds relative to one another. On earth, we usually compare to the ground, but of course that gives different results than comparing to the moon or to the inside of a car.
Einstein’s relativity takes the same warping from speed and gravity and applies them to both time and space, and since speed is based on time and space speed also warps.
Speed is relative as well.
Though I think you’re misunderstanding some things.
How fast something is going depends on the perspective of the observer.
We say something like “X is moving at Y kilometers per hour relative to us” for example.
Say someone on a rocket going .7 the speed of light (this is called C) relative to us, launches a missile going at .5 C relative to them straight ahead.
He sees the missile traveling at .5 C, but we do not see the missile going at 1.2 C, instead we see it going at 0.8889 C relative to us.
We agree that the missile is going faster than the rocket, we just disagree on how much faster.
You’re conflating different things are and also you have some incorrect assumptions. You’re fundamentally misunderstanding what relativity means and how we measure time.
First, time is not measured by the solar year. I have no idea where you got that from but it’s wrong. Time is measured by the second. A second is always a second no matter where you are. You could be in New Jersey or Australia or Mars or the Andromeda galaxy, you will always experience a second to be the exact same length of time. So when we say one of the Mars rovers drove at 50 meters per hour, that’s the exact same speed as 50 meters per hour on Earth because it’s the exact same second and the exact same meter and we’re measuring it from the perspective of the Mars rover itself.
Now this is not what you were asking about, but velocity *is* relative, just not in the way that you meant. Right now I’m standing still on Earth. From the frame of reference of Earth, my velocity is 0 because I’m standing still. But the Earth is traveling around the Sun at roughly 30 kilometers per second. That means from the frame of reference of the sun, my velocity is 30 kilometers per second, so my velocity is different depending on what you use as a reference point. There’s a lot more to relativity than this but that’s beyond the scope of this question
A solar year is a solar year whether you are on Earth or Mars. It takes the same amount of time. What changes is that on Mars it takes longer for the planet to orbit around the sun. But if you lived on Mars you’d still age at the same rate.
Speed is the same, whether you measure in kilometers per hour or miles per second, you are still going the same speed, just the units you use change. So yes you could change units based on a martian year vs. an earth year, but a kilometer is still a kilometer, a mile is still a mile.
Time becomes relative when you are talking about traveling at super high speeds and experiencing relativistic effects, but thats only compared to another frame of reference. If you are on a planet traveling .99999 the speed of light relative to earth, you will experience the same distance and time on YOUR planet because thats the frame of reference you are in.
Latest Answers