If I were to fly around the globe really fast, would I get any younger?

Question

We're studying relativity in physics right now and I thought that this would be an interesting question. If we could travel fast enough, would we ever get any older?

Answer 1

Hi. Only if you traveled at (or near ) the speed of light would time slow significantly. But you would only slow the aging process to an observer. You would not get younger.

Answer 2

The fact is that won't become younger you would just age more slowly than a person tha is not moving. This is how it works: in special relativity when you move the time as a coordinate is affected by the speed of your motion so when you travel at a speed near that of the light the Lorentz transformations are to be perform and the time intervals you measure are smaller than that measured by the observer at rest. The time measured in the rest frame is called the proper time and it is always faster than the time in the moving frame no matter if the moving frame is inertial or not, the effect is the same; you just have to move to slow your aging rate. This works even for terrestrial speeds (i mean for speeds smaller than the speed of light) but the effect is quite small.

Answer 3

Would you get younger? Not unless you broke the known laws of physics and exceeded light speed, and even then no one knows for sure what would happen because it of course hasn't been empirically observed. You WOULD get older slower relative to stationary people on Earth, though. You WOULDN'T get older slower from your perspective, because you would age at the same rate relative to your current perception of time. People on Earth would just appear to get older faster.

If you could (and all relevant physical laws point to "no") reach light speed, my understanding is that time would not pass for you while you were at that speed. However, you also would not experience anything during that time (which is equal to zero from your perspective), so if you ended where you started, you wouldn't necessarily even know it had happened. If you ended your light speed trip elsewhere, you would perceive that you arrived there literally in no time.

Answer 4

Today, we know that time travel need not be confined to myths, science fiction, Hollywood movies, or even speculation by theoretical physicists. Time travel is possible. For example, an object traveling at high speeds ages more slowly than a stationary object. This means that if you were to travel into outer space and return, moving close to light speed, you could travel thousands of years into the Earth's future.

Answer 5

I hear that you don't age as fast when your in a jet plane for some reason. It has something to do with Time Dilation, I think is the term. I never really understood it but my prof. gave me this example.....

Say you were wonder woman flying in her invisible plane really fast. If you were looking at a person moving you would only see them for a split second, they would almost stop moving while you were going faster and faster. It has something to do with that, you moving fast while everyone else has more or less stopped moving. He continued for a few sentences more but he kind of lost me.

Answer 6

i had studying ralativity a few months ago, and really interested with this topic ^^

No..you won't be younger ^^, nobody can be younger anyway ^^, but , your time goes slower than usual

Explanation :

if you do travel out of space with the SPEED OF LIGHT, it can slower ur process to be older, becoz, time move so fast for earth, and move so slow for you . you can go to far far away planet only for hours (count in the speed of light) while time on earth become years by years

when you get back to earth, you still as young as when you get off from earth

but, it won't take effect if you travel on earth :p

Answer 7

I don't think so. Because even if we flew around the world really fast, we'd still just be continually flying into time zones. For example, if we started here and it was 12 in the afternoon, and we flew around the world really fast until we got to china, and it was 1 there, we really wouldnt be any older, we'd just be in a different time zone.

Answer 8

I do understand time dilation, but time will go slower for you. What does that mean?

Will you become retarded? I measure time not in terms of heartbeats but in terms of experiences and thoughts. What is 1 second, but an arbitrary amount of time? Even if your 1 second is bigger for me, does that mean you are younger when you return? You are breathing all the time, cells are dying in your body at the same time, perhaps more cells will die in your body when you accelerate at I don't know how many G's to reach speed of light. How can you claim to be younger then?

Answer 9

You will never get younger. But if you travel fast enough, and return to where you left, everyone else will be older than you expect them to be.

Answer 10

no you wouldnt get younger you would just age less as fast as ever one else due to the laws of physics.