2006-09-22 12:50:01 · 19 answers · asked by ♪ ♫ ☮ NYbron ☮ ♪ ♫ 6 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Christmas eve and during my monthly staff meetings
2006-09-22 12:52:40 · answer #1 · answered by empress_pam 4 · 1⤊ 2⤋
As the speed of any object increases, its properties, as measured by an observer at rest, change. Its mass increases, its length in the direction of travel decreases and time slows down. At ordinary Earthbound speeds, even those of a jet plane, the changes are infinitesimal.
At very high speeds, however, the changes become extremely important. An astronaut travelling at 90 per cent of the speed of light, for instance, would not feel any different from his twin on Earth. But the mass of his spacecraft would be more than double, its length would be less than half and a clock on board would take an hour to record 25 minutes because time had slowed - and he would therefore be ageing at less than half the speed of his brother.
At the speed of light, the mass of his spacecraft would become infinite, its length would shrink to nothing and time aboard it would slow to a complete stop. Since this is impossible, nothing, other than light, can travel as fast as, nor faster than light.
2006-09-22 20:02:59 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Time is entirely an invention of the human mind, whether measured by clocks or how "long" the Earth takes to go around the Sun. As Mach, and later Einstein, recognized, there is no such thing as absolute time. Since there's no such thing, there's no "absolute time" to slow down.
That said: the *apparent* time that it takes something to happen is a question of relative motion. A clock whipping around the earth inside a satellite will "tick" slower than one at rest on the ground. This theory has been tested over and over.
2006-09-23 03:55:07 · answer #3 · answered by Luis 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The sense of time is slowed when an object is near/around the speed of light.
2006-09-22 19:51:52 · answer #4 · answered by treseuropean 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
When your velocity approaches that of the speed of light. If you're traveling just under 186,000 miles a second, time passes very slowly indeed. But everyone standing still will continue to age at a normal rate.
2006-09-22 19:53:34 · answer #5 · answered by Mark L 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Time never slows down... it just appears to at high speeds. High speeds defined as fractions of the speed of light.
2006-09-22 19:52:46 · answer #6 · answered by anonymous_20003 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well I like to believe that time in fact is relative to mass, speed and space. But I couldn't tell you when exactly it becomes slower, but I have in fact felt it that way when waiting for something dreadful to happen (dentist, surgery, etc.) or while having an accident or a near death experience
2006-09-22 19:54:00 · answer #7 · answered by Slifer! 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Time passes at different rates according to how fast you are moving. The difference in time becomes significant if you were to travel at about half the speed of light. Then you would age at 4/7 's the rate of things moving at "non-relativistic" speeds. If you move at the speed of light, no time passes for you. Interestingly, no matter how fast you move, light always moves at light speed relative to you.
2006-09-22 20:08:53 · answer #8 · answered by water boy 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Anytime you are doing something that you don't like or is painful, time slows down.
2006-09-22 19:58:56 · answer #9 · answered by spongeworthy_us 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We wouldn't know, because as time slows down, so does our perception of it.
-lewa
2006-09-22 21:56:10 · answer #10 · answered by lewa 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
closer to the speed of light,but if you can slow light would time speed up or is that relative also?DAMN ANOTHER QUESTION WITH A QUESTION.....NEW ZEALAND SCIENTIST HAVE,A FEW YEARS AGO.
2006-09-22 19:54:29 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋