I vaguely understand that, according to the theory of relativity, because the speed of light is constant, it stays the same regardless of how bent the space is, so time has to pass slower when there is a bend in space – but I cannot apply that understanding to time actually slowing down. All the examples on youtube seem to be understanding something I’m not. I cannot wrap my head around time dilation.
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I do really well with real world examples/visualisations.
In: 4
There actually is a correct yet fairly intuitive explanation.
Everything moves through spacetime at the same rate, it’s called the “spacetime interval”. It has a space component and a time component, but overall a fixed value.
Massless things, like photons, travel at the maximum speed through space, c, and therefore don’t experience time at all (from a photon’s point of view it is emitted and absorbed in the same instant).
Massive things cannot travel through space at c, therefore they have a non-zero time speed. The less space speed they have, the more time speed they have (i.e. “age faster”)
Now to explain WHY that is and to understand the math behind it basically requires a phd.
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