Does gravity have an effect on time?

Question

I know speed has an effect, but does gravity?

Has there been any study to look into this?

any links to studies? And also any one have any idea as to how much it affects time?

As for the guy who said speed doesn't either, speed does have an effect on time, at the speed of light time stops.

Thanks Oldman and SmartMind for the laughs.
Thanks M137pay and Eagle flyer for the helpful answers.

As for Speed, got that down pretty well, but my question was more about the gravity.

As far as feeling the effects of no gravity, I would think it would take getting to a point in between two galaxies. Then we would need to figure in Dark matter which may have a different type of gravity, so....
And to those who say time is a man made concept, so it has no effect. We didn't make the earth rotate every 24 hours or orbit the sun every 365.25 days. We found ways to break it down into usable numbers and figures to figure out when it is best to have breakfast lunch and dinner. No matter where my watch is as long as the battery is good it will count out time the same way. However the speed it travels will slow it down or speed it up, and appearantly the closer to a massive object, it will speed up as well.

Or actually I mean slow down closer to a massive object....

Answer 1

Yes it does. Experiments have been done in which two synchronized clocks are placed independent of one another, one at sea level and one at high altitude in the mountains. The high altitude clock runs slightly faster, proving that a stronger gravitational effect (gravity at sea level is slightly stronger than at altitude) will slow down the relative passage of time.

Gravity is the result of mass warping the fabric of space-time, not (as Oldman suggest below) the result of centrifugal force (which is not even a force in the strictest sense, but rather the result of a linear force being confined to a curved plane).

I couldn't find a link to the study but page 32 of Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" describes a study...

"Another prediction of general relativity is that time should appear to slower near a massive body like the earth. This is because there is a relation between the energy of light and its frequency (that is, the number of waves of light per second): the greater the energy, the higher frequency. As light travels upward in the earth’s gravitational field, it loses energy, and so its frequency goes down. (This means that the length of time between one wave crest and the next goes up.) To someone high up, it would appear that everything down below was taking longer to happen. This prediction was tested in 1962, using a pair of very accurate clocks mounted at the top and bottom of a water tower. The clock at the bottom, which was nearer the earth, was found to run slower, in exact agreement with general relativity. The difference in the speed of clocks at different heights above the earth is now of considerable practical importance, with the advent of very accurate navigation systems based on signals from satellites. If one ignored the predictions of general relativity, the position that one calculated would be wrong by several miles!"

Answer 2

An object travels from point A to point B in one second. A second object travels from the same point A to the same point B but it takes 2 seconds. Does one age faster or slower than the other? The answer is no. the first object made it to point B in one second then had to wait one more second for the second object to reach point B. The second object traveled the entire 2 seconds from point A to point B. Both objects existed for exactly the same amount of time, 2 seconds, one just traveled the same amount of distance faster. The measurement of matter in motion is not related to time. I have a hard time understanding this concept.

Answer 3

Yes. Einstein's theory of general relativity managed to treat gravity on an equal footing with acceleration. There's your speed. Not only does gravity have an effect on time, it has the biggest effect on time. Time passes very slowly in a massive gravitational field, relative to an observer on Earth. If it were possible for you to cross the event horizon of a black hole, for example, if somebody outside the event horizon was watching you fall in (with a very powerful telescope, say) you'd appear to be frozen in time.

Answer 4

As of the beginning of writing this answer, I have not seen one other answer that makes the slightest bit of sense. Speed does not have any effect on time. Only the length of time it takes to get from point 'a' to point 'b'. As far as gravity, Time is based on the rotation of earth on its axis. this same rotation is what effects gravity, faster rotation, more gravity, slower rotation, less gravity. with that understanding, it is time which has an effect on gravity rather than gravity having an effect on time.

Answer 5

According to Einstein's general theory of relativity, gravity slows time. At the surface of the Earth where gravity is strongest, time moves more slowly than at higher altitude. On earth the difference in the passage of time is slight and difficult to measure. At the event horizon of a black hole, time stands still as viewed from afar, even though an in falling astronaut would notice no difference in his local time as he crossed the horizon. Mind you for the astronaut to avoid being torn apart by tidal forces near the event horizon, the black hole would have to be very massive, like the million solar mass one at the centre of the Milky Way. Massive bodies like the Earth and Sun distort space-time around them due to their gravitational field. A black hole freezes time at its event horizon, at least when observed from afar, and it red shifts light until the wavelength becomes infinitely long at the event horizon.

Answer 6

time is a man made concept based on the earths rotation around the sun. there is no such thing as time.we only have the now so enjoy it my friend.

Answer 7

yes! gravity has an effect on time

if there is too much gravity you will move slower
there for get to your destination slower

if there is less gravity you will get to your destination quicker.

Answer 8

i saw somewhere that you age like 5 times slower in space. since space doesnt have gravity, yes, it does.

Answer 9

e=mc squared so energy is in effect with gravity and therefore time must also be affected.

Answer 10

No, there is no reason for think about it that say time is effect.