Is “Now”, for me, mathematically the same as “Now” for people on the other side of the world?

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I have only a very vague awareness of the idea of relativity but I’m aware that there’s a concept that people in orbit experience less time than those on the planet due to gravity, in some way.

Does this mean that the idea of “now”, as in a moment that is right now, is marginally different for people in other places? Are they experiencing a moment that is in my objective future/past, in a mathematical sense?

In: Physics

25 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

On Earth? Yes, there is an objective present. Things are happening across the world simultaneously as your existence. Someone across the word is scratching their nuts as I type this. Someone else is sneezing. But “now” is constantly moving. By the time I send this comment, the nut scratcher and sneezer are probably done doing their thing. But they’re still breathing, blinking, existing at the exact same moment as you and I.

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