We come to know of time dilation through the Special theory of relativity. Is it real or just an illusion?

Question

What I want to ask is that is it really that time moves slowly or it just seems to pass slowly?

Answer 1

It is real. We can measure the life of a muon here on the surface of the earth, but according to calcuations, this lifetime is much shorter than what we measure. However, these muons are created in the upper atmosphere and move at relavatistic speeds. Time dialation explains the increase in time. Since they are traveling very fast, then time slows down and they appear to live longer!

Answer 2

It's just the opposite. Time really moves slowly but it seems to pass at a normal pace by an observer in that time dilation.

Answer 3

It has been tested.They put one atomic clock in a jet and compared it to one on the ground after several hours of flying at high speed.The clock on the ground recorded more time passing than the one on the aircraft.It was only maybe a billionth of a second,but still a measurable difference.

Answer 4

Well this question cant be answered in this sense. The mental workings of humans do lots of things to the environment around them. Time is also not real in a sense, its just the measure of our existence.

Answer 5

This is a real effect. Clocks slow down. Radioactive particles decay more slowly.

Answer 6

The reason for its reality is that energy that forms the mass, converts in unusable energy due to it becoming kinetic energy.

Even though your body is composed of energy, it is energy that is relevant in all three dimensions. As a person approaches the speed of light, the usable mass/energy moves toward zero in form of kinetic energy. Therefore there is less potential energy at right angles to direction of movement. At the speed of light, there is no energy potential at right angles to direction of travel.

Answer 7

All clocks measure the same time.Clock does not know if you are running or standing still; it just ticks away no matter what the observer thinks.