I need someone to make sense of it for me. I appreciate the clock scenario where it stays at 12 o’clock if you move away from it at the speed of lìght, but regardless of how fast someone travels, their body will still age just as fast as anyone else (roughly). I don’t understand how just putting distance between someone’s self and the rest of Earth would somehow make them age at a slower rate? You’re aging, just further away..
Hope this makes sense!
In: Physics
It’s not distance that makes time go slower, but speed. The closer you get to the speed of light, the slower time passes for you. Of course, you don’t *feel* like time is going slower, it’s not like you’re stuck going in slow motion or anything. *Everything* slows down at the same rate, your thoughts, clocks, aging, etc.
I think the distance thing comes in because examples tend to use travelling in straight line off into space on a rocket. Going 90% speed of light for 10 years, you’ll travel 9 light-years. But, the same effect will happen if you just go in a small circle at 90% the speed of light for 10 years (nevermind the extreme g-forces that you’ll experience) and effectively go nowhere.
It’s really weird and counter-intuitive because for everyday life it seems like time ticks by at a steady rate, but ultimately that’s how the universe really works.
Latest Answers