Two statements from Special Relativity are:
- The Light Clock measures time.
- Time is what a clock measures.
This seems somewhat circular, but I wonder if it is possible to use the light clock as a role model for other physical processes and would be interested how far this transfer works to understand time better.
When I say "time runs slower" (or "faster") I will of course always be referring to the difference between a stationary and an moving observer.
So time runs slower for the moving observer, let it be my friend Joe and his rough "clock" is his heartbeat. His heartbeat runs slower as if he would stay next to me. But how? What are the fundamental processes that take longer in the same way as the Light Clock's light beam has to travel farther in the moving system (length D instead of just length L in the referenced Wikipedia article)? This is what I guess so far:
- For the heart to beat, a lot of chemical reactions are going on. Is it correct to say that these require the exchange of (at least virtual) photons. And this exchange is slowed due to the longer path these photons have to travel? If yes, then what about the following:
- What about weak interaction Bosons W+, W-, Z. Are they "hampered" in their mediating the interaction due to the longer path to travel in the same way as the photon in the light clock.
- What about strong interaction's particles?
- Gravitons?
- ...?
I know this is mechanistic and intuitive, so I would be happy to at least know how far this intuitive view of time (running slower) has a grain of credit or is utter nonsense.
EDIT: This question is marked as a duplicate of What is time dilation really?, but I cannot see how the answers refer in any way to my question. Rather the duplicate-suggesters seem to interpret more into my question than there is. I can try to rephrase it, but I am not sure I can make it clearer.
An often cited description of the the Light Clock makes time dilation intuitive by referring to the fact that the light in the moving frame, as compared to the non-moving frame, has to travel a longer path. Is this complete nonsense? If not, does the same explanation hold for other fundamental forces (strong, weak, gravitation) in analogy?