If time slows for an object approaching the speed of light wouldn't time move infinitely fast for that ...

Question

object if it came to a complete stop?

Answer 1

Your question stems from a misunderstanding of special relativity and the idea that there is no universal reference frame which one can make measurements in.

First we must define what reference frame we are measuring an object's speed in. If we measure all speeds with respect to 'us', the observer, then the object is moving relative to us at some velocity v. If we were to choose a different reference frame, the object would have a different speed....for example, in the object's own reference frame it is standing still, it has zero velocity relative to itself.
In our own reference frame looking at the object as its velocity approaches the speed of light, we see time slow down for the object. HOWEVER, the object itself, in its own reference frame senses nothing is wrong...it does not feel like time it slowing down, and it isn’t since relative to itself, it is not moving.
As the object slows down as measured in our own reference frame, the object's velocity v gets closer and closer to zero. As the object’s velocity approaches zero, the time dilation we earlier measured is lessened (you might even say that time is speeding up, or at least not slowing down as much as it had). When the object's velocity is measured to be zero, we observe no time dilation. However, just because 'we' measure the object's speed to be zero does not mean that it is zero in every reference frame...just in ours. Someone else in another reference frame can look at the object and see it moving (non-zero velocity) and their measurement is just as valid as ours. To them in the other reference frame, they might see the object's experience of time as being dilated to their own experiences, but we do not measure this since we are now in the object's own reference frame...there is no relative velocity between us and it. When there is no relative velocity between two reference frames then there is no time dilation between the two...time does not come to a stop, it merely progresses at the same rate experienced by the other objects in the reference frame.

The amount to which time is dilated as observed by an outside reference frame measuring an object's speed to be v relative to them can be related to the gamma factor,
1/sqrt (1 - v^2/c^2)
Where c is the speed of light in a vacuum.
You can see that as the velocity measured in the outside reference frame approaches the speed of light, time becomes infinitely dilated. As the object's velocity approaches zero in the outside reference frame, time dilation does to zero and the two frames experience the passage of time at the same rate.

Answer 2

It's the passage of time on that object as seen by an exterior observer that is slowing down. For the people on the object time is moving along at it's normal rate. If it came to a stop, the inhabitants would see no difference and we would see the time as being at the same rate as ours

Answer 3

It's not possible for an object to come to a complete stop. And if time COULD move infinitely fast for that object, that would be the same as the object having never existed.

Answer 4

Best answer: I bet you can't define "a complete stop."

Stopped in relation to what? When you come to a complete stop in an automobile, you are still moving at close to 25,000 MPH on the spinning surface of the earth - and the whole earth itself along with our solar system is hurtling through space at tremendous velocities.

However, that's an interesting deduction you've made, but since any object in space can consider itself at rest (and rightfully so) when determining the motions and directions of other objects, I guess we'll never know.

Answer 5

This is a mistaken idea that time slows down as you increase velocity. Only clock functions change as they increase in velocity. Clocks that are at a complete stop, without any spatial motion, do keep correct time.

All clocks that have no spatial motion tick at the same rate everywhere in the universe. Spatial motion is a vector quantity and any vector quantity may be brought to a complete stop by applying the correct force in the correct direction.

The rate or out transition in the time dimension is equal to the speed of light. The speed of light moves one Planck distance in one Planck time. Since the speed of light is constant the rate of time is constant. When converted to miles per hour it is equal to 186,000 miles per second. The speed of light may be used to measure this fastest rate of time. It will always be the same everywhere in the universe.

All things in our universe exist in the present. If time actually slowed down with velocity then anything that moved would fall back in time and no longer be in the present. Since nothing has ever disappeared from the present, time has never slowed down.

Answer 6

There is always motion due to the expansion of space (which can exceed the speed of light); we talk of objects traveling at the speed of light in addition to the expansion, for which time slows down. I believe this means there is a sort of "maximum time rate" (not infinitely fast) that objects whose only motion is the expansion of space share.

Answer 7

ummm no! The object is moving incredibly fast that's why time slows. If the object is not moving at all, time would only pass at it's normal rate.

Answer 8

No, if it comes to a stop relative to you, time intervals measured by an observer on that object will be consistent with yours.

Answer 9

i believe to a bystander the moving objects time would only appear to hold still. to the moving object the opposite might appear to him. but when he stops moving im more than willing to bet that both of their watches will state the same time.

Answer 10

I have a theory of my own. Time is constant. Only how we measure time changes. As you go faster you can get more done, so it seems that time slows down. Time is fine, you just speed up.