Is Einsteins theory on "if you travel the speed of light, time slows down" true?

Question

Most people have given me explanations that are to complicated for me. plz explain in a way i can understand

Answer 1

Imagine this ---
You're zipping away from Earth at almost the speed of light while poor me stays behind. I have a magic telescope and can see a clock aboard your spaceship. I notice that it's running slower than my clock and think that for you time has slowed down. But when you monitor your clock in the spaceship it's marking time at the same rate you've always been used to. For you in your 'reference frame' (..the speeding rocket..) time is okay. For me though in my 'reference frame' (..stationary on Earth..) time has slowed down for you.

This is all popularly called the 'twin paradox' and shows how time is affected under Einstein's relativity .

One of the most critical things to notice about this part of relativity is that it's impossible to say which clock is showing the correct time..! They're both right because time is strictly relative, not absolute, like there's some Cosmic Master Clock ticking off the 'correct' time for the whole universe.

Answer 2

I think of was the Apollo 10 flight that took an atomic (Caesium) clock around the Moon and sure enough it was something like 45 milliseconds slow when compared to the one that stayed on Earth.
It was within 10 milliseconds of the calculated prediction for the time dilation.
As a Caesium clock is accurate to within seconds for a million years anyone who tinkers with electronics would realize that this effect is definitely macroscopic.
Actually time dilation was Fitzgerald's idea in 1889.
Lorentz published independently in the 1890's so it is called the Fitzgerald-Lorentz contraction theory.
Lorentz is the only person acknowledged in Einstein's famous 1905 paper on special relativity.
By the way; time slows as you approach the speed of light. Being an absolute limit it is only approachable not attainable. Time may stop at the speed of light.

Answer 3

The Theory of Special Relativity makes the assumption that traveling at the speed of light is impossible for objects with mass and faster than the speed of light is impossible. The SciFi channel is an awful source of Science, but a great source of Fiction. P.S. The "Theory" is generally accepted as scientific fact with quite a number of tests. See the article below.

Answer 4

Yes it is true that as you approach the speed of light (you can never quite reach it) time slows down relative to a "stationary object." (reason for quotes described below). This is not an illusion, and not a trick, it is real and has been demonstrated repeatedly in laboratories and accelerators. There are 3 steps to understanding this part of special relativity.

1. Distance = speed x time. Therefore, if you travel at the same speed for twice as long, you will go twice as far, etc.

2. The speed of light in a vacuum is constant for all observers. This is the most difficult part to understand. It is what Einstein figured out, and it shows that there is really no such thing as a "stationary object," only objects that move relative to each other. This means that if you travel toward a star at 90% light speed, then the light from that star will pass you at exactly the speed of light = about 186,000 miles / sec relative to you. If you travel away from the star at 90% light speed, then the light from that star will still pass you at the same exact speed of light = 186,000 miles / second relative to you. This does not make intuitive sense, but it is the way the universe works (so far as we know).

3. Finally, combine these two items into one thought experiment, as Einstein would have done. Picture yourself on an asteroid watching a friend pass by at near light speed in a glass spaceship. As he passes, he shines a flashlight at the glass floor. The beam reflects off the floor and bounces back up to your friend's eye. To your friend, the path that the beam takes is "straight down and straight back up" - like this: | . You see the beam differently, however. Because of the high speed of the ship, you see the beam take a longer angled path down and then back up, like this: \/.

Now since distance = speed x time and since the speed of light is constant, then there are only two numbers left to work with and they must act together. If the distance is longer, then the time must be longer. It is important to understand that the distance does not just seem to be longer, it really is longer as measured in your frame of reference. Therefore, the time for the event to occur really is longer in your frame of reference. Things that you see happening on the ship take longer than if the ship were not moving. This does not just apply to light beams, it applies to time. Time and distance are linked together and are not fixed but relative, based on the motion of the object in question and the observer.

This is a bit of an oversimplification, but it is basically accurate and is easy to predict using the Lorentz transform equations. Where it gets really interesting is what your friend sees you doing as he passes by (which is the same thing that you see him doing i.e. time slowing down).

Hope this helps.

Answer 5

Actually, it has been proven at slower speeds than the speed of light. A test was done where they used 2 synchronized atomic clocks to find if Einstein's theory was true. One was placed in a jet, the other stayed on the ground. The plane flew at a high speed then landed. The clocks weren't synchronized any longer.

Answer 6

It is actually a mathematician named Lorentz who discovered this, and yes, it's true.

This phenomena is known as time dilation. It's very easy to understand if you do a web search for "light clock" where it will be explained with pictures.

I'll explain it here anyway.

Imagine you are standing on the ground and your friend is standing on a cart, and on the cart is a light clock which consists of a photon of light and two mirrors. The photon bounces up and down between the two mirrors once per second and you and your friend set your watches to it.

Now lets say the cart starts moving and it goes flying by you.

Instead of seeing the photon move up down, because the cart is now moving past you, you see the photon take a diagonal path.

If you know a little about trigonometry of geometry, you know that this diagonal path is a longer distance than the vertical path you previously saw the photon traveling.

From your perspective, in order for the photon to strike the mirrors at the same time your watch tick tocks, it now must move faster because the path it takes is longer.

However, the photon can't speed up because the speed of light is a constant, so it travels the longer path at the same speed it traveled the shorter path, and so takes longer to hit the mirrors. The result is, when the cart is moving, you see the light clock run slower than the watch you calibrated to it.

But remember, your friend on the cart also calibrated their watch to the light clock, and thus your watch. Your friend, traveling with the cart, see's the photon taking the original vertical path. You see time itself on the moving cart as running slower than your own time, but your friend see's the time on themoving cart as running just fine and YOUR time running slower because your friend could claim to be stationary and you to be moving.

Answer 7

The faster you go and for the longer time you do it, the slower time will pass for you relative to the place you started from. It's a difficult thing to understand, but what it is is that Einstein realized that the speed of light is the same for all observers, no matter what their speed or location. For this to be true (which it is, many experiments have proven it)), distance and time must change, since speed is distance per unit of time. Believe it, it's true.

Answer 8

There aren't too many simple ways to test this theory. The only experiment I know of which demonstrates the veracity of Einstein's special theory is one that measure incoming particles called Muons that come screaming in at earth at speeds very close to the speed of light. By carefully measuring the rate of decay of these Muons, one can determine that their life span has been increased because for them, time has been slowed.

Answer 9

According to the Theory of Relativity, an observer viewing something else travelling at high speed with respect to the observer, sees that time slows down for the traveler. However, the traveler does not see time slow down for himself. Rather he sees time slow down for the observer. This strange concept is explained by "the Principle of Relativity". According to this Principle, any person can consider that he is at rest and that everything else is in motion with respect to him. If you are on a train or plane, you will notice that if the ride is smooth, you do not feel motion. Therefore, the traveler considers himself at rest and the observer to be moving at high speed with respect to him, while the observer considers himself to be at rest while the traveler is moving at high speed with respect to HIM. Therefore, both the traveler and the observer will see that time slows down for the other one, but not for himself.

Answer 10

Well it depends upon what a person thinks of as time. Humans always use units to fit their needs. But when you look at light, it travels so fast that scientists even use the speed of light itself as a unit. So it depends on how you look at it.