Tagged Questions

13
votes
1answer
151 views

Is period of rotation relative?

My question is inspired by the following answer by voix to another problem: "There is a real object with relativistic speed of surface - millisecond pulsar. The swiftest spinning pulsar currently ...
7
votes
3answers
116 views

Do velocity and acceleration time dilation factors add?

For a spinning space station such as in 2001, A Space Odyssey, what would be the time slowing in the perimeter of the spinning space station with respect to the center axis of the station? The ...
7
votes
1answer
110 views

Cancelling special & general relativistic effects

We know that for a GPS we need to make a correction for both general and special relativity: general relativity predicts that clocks go slower in a higher gravitational field (the clock aboard a GPS ...
2
votes
4answers
204 views

Time inside a Black hole

If time stops inside a black hole, due to gravitational time dilation, how can it's life end after a very long time? If time doesn't pass inside a black hole, then an event to occur inside a black ...
0
votes
1answer
54 views

Time Dilation in relation to Acceleration

What I am looking for is a layman's explanation on the equations required to work out Time Dilation at high speeds including acceleration and deceleration of velocity. Or I would greatly appreciate it ...
4
votes
1answer
93 views

Understanding how the rate of time changes

The rate at which time passes is relative depending on speed and the gravity as predicted in general relativity. This theory has been tested by scientists by comparing two identical atomic clocks, one ...
8
votes
2answers
249 views

Question about proper time in general relativity

I think I may have some fundamental misunderstanding about what $dt, dx$ are in general relativity. As I understand it, in special relativity, $ds^2=dt^2-dx^2$, we call this the length because it is ...
1
vote
1answer
139 views

Do residents of the Hudson Bay area have more time?

Apparently there is a gravity anomaly in the Hudson Bay Area in Canada: gravity is "missing" or it is slightly less than it is in the rest of the world. Does that mean that things in the Hudson Bay ...
4
votes
1answer
102 views

How is the direction of time determined in general relativity?

In special relativity every frame has its own unique time axis, represented in Minkowski diagrams by a fan-out of time vectors that grows infinitely dense as you approach the surface of the light cone ...
3
votes
3answers
310 views

Why do clocks measure arc-length?

Apologies in advance for the long question. My understanding is that in GR, massive observers move along timelike curves $x^\mu(\lambda)$, and if an observer moves from point $x^\mu(\lambda_a)$ to ...
0
votes
4answers
202 views

The bigger the mass, the more time slows down. Why is this?

If I were to stand by a pyramid, which weighs about 20 million tons, I would slow down by a trillion million million million of second. Don't know if that's exactly right, but you get the point. Also, ...
-1
votes
2answers
114 views

Can time dilation be explained by limitations on computing power?

Are there any ideas of explaining the time dilatation as limits in "computing power"? What I mean is basically that the greater is a concentrated mass, the harder is to "compute" what happens in such ...
0
votes
0answers
36 views

Can a black hole actually grow, from the point of view of a distant observer? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Black hole formation as seen by a distant observer I've read in several places that from the PoV of a distant observer it will take an infinite amount of time for new ...
1
vote
1answer
217 views

In general relativity (GR), does time stop at the event horizon or in the central singularity of a black hole?

I was reading through this question on time and big bang, and @John Rennie's answer surprised me. In the immediate environment of a black hole, where does time stop ticking if one were to follow a ...
4
votes
3answers
182 views

Black hole formation as seen by a distant observer [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: How can anything ever fall into a black hole as seen from an outside observer? Is black hole formation observable for a distant observer in finite amount of time? ...
4
votes
1answer
69 views

Could a bipolar nebula be produced by a time gradient?

M2-9 is an example of a bipolar nebula that resembles two back-to-back rocket nozzles. Is it possible that this shape (somewhat unusual for an explosion) is the result of a time gradient? A rotating ...
-3
votes
4answers
190 views

How can we be sure about the constancy of atomic clocks as in the Hafele and Keating time dilation test?

Atomic clocks were used in Hafele and Keatings experiment which supposedly helped to prove time dilation. Time Dilation Proof - Hafele and Keating How can we be sure other forces didn't act upon the ...
1
vote
2answers
144 views

What's the relationship between quantum entanglement and the relativity of time?

Apologies in advance for what may be a stupid question from a layman. In reading recently about quantum entanglement, I understood there to be a direct link between entangled particles, even at ...
4
votes
3answers
174 views

Twin paradox - observers counter orbiting Earth

Imagine three observers - one (A) stationary on the surface of Earth (latitude 0 deg) and two others orbiting the planet in the same circular equatorial orbit just in the opposite direction. When the ...
2
votes
4answers
567 views

How long would it take to travel through a wormhole?

Assuming wormholes exist and you put some matter into one, how long would it take to reach the other end versus how far apart the two ends are? Basically, by how much does a wormhole stretch ...
4
votes
4answers
846 views

That 10km/day error predicted if GPS satellite clocks not corrected for relativity

Some authorities have stated publicly and without explanation that if the theories of Special and General Relativity were not taken into account in the design of the GPS (by building the satellite ...
0
votes
1answer
183 views

If you removed every particle from space…? [closed]

I'm trying to find something Einstein (I think) said about time...It was something like.. "If you removed every particle from space and were left with only one pocket watch (clock, timepiece?), time ...
0
votes
1answer
181 views

Is relativistic motion equivalent to fluctuating gravitational fields?

The theory of relativity makes very precise predictions about how an object's motion through space-time affects the passage of time for both the object and observers in other frames of reference. I ...
4
votes
2answers
319 views

What is the closest general-relativistic equivalent of a “time slice”?

In a newtonian universe, one can talk of a "time slice", that is, the state of the universe at a given point in (global) time. In a "typical" classical universe, a time slice would contain enough ...
14
votes
4answers
2k views

How is the classical twin paradox resolved?

I read a lot about the classical twin paradox recently. What confuses me is that some authors claim that it can be resolved within SRT, others say that you need GRT. Now, what is true (and why)?
13
votes
2answers
557 views

Symmetrical twin paradox

Take the following gedankenexperiment in which two astronauts meet each other again and again in a perfectly symmetrical setting - a hyperspherical (3-manifold) universe in which the 3 dimensions are ...