Wouldn't Earth's own mass distort Spacetime itself?

Question

The way I understand Spacetime is that it is altered from gravitational pull from other masses.. Wouldn't that mean we are living in a somewhat slower "timespan" is the word I'll use then the Spacetime that isn't being affected by gravitational pull.. and if so.. How big of a distortion is it?

So If human civilization had evolved on a much larger planet that signifcantly impacted spacetime.. Would we be.. in essence.. living in "slow motion"?

As to clarify some things a bit.. Let's say on Planet "X" which greatly distorts Spacetime, and then there was Planet "Z" which didn't affect it as much. If we both could reach speeds of.. let's just say 80 MPH. Wouldn't the 80 MPH on Planet "X" truly be faster then the "80 MPH" on Planet "Z"?

Answer 1

The mass of the earth does "distort" spacetime and if it didn't you would be floating off into space. That distortion is what we feel as gravity.

Now as far as having an effect on time, you are sort of right. Einstein's General Theory of Relativity predicts that clocks in a gravitational fields run slow compared to clocks not in a gravitational field, and that the stronger the gravitational field the slower the clock runs. This is know to be true. But if you live in a stronger gravitational field you would still be like you are now, you would not do things in slow motion. But, if you were a twin and born in a weak gravitational field and then moved to a place with a much much stronger gravitational field while your twin stayed behine, 30 years later if you returned to your twin then you would be somewhat younger. How much younger depends on the strength of the field but I doubt if you would be very much younger since you would not be able to survive in the required graviational field that would significantly reduce your age relative to your twin.

I have included a couple of references for your reading enjoyment.

Answer 2

Yes, Earth's gravity distorts spacetime (the correct term for the 4d fabric of space & time). Not only is the effect measurable, the effect needs to be conpensated for by highly sensitive GPS satellites (I actually did some calculations for this in grad school).

And yes, the effect is measureably larger as gravity increases. However, the effect is completely inperceptible on any "normal" celestrial body. The sun is about 333,000 times more massive than Earth, and the effect is barely any larger. Even a neutron star would not effect a massive change in spacetime. Only when you get near the event horizon of a black hole do you start to see measurable effects of time dilation due to gravity, and you have to be very very close to the horizon to really notice any difference in ordinary human perception (assuming, of course, you could survive the tidal forces and intense heat and radiation). At the event horizon, however, you are correct - time stands still due to the warpage of spacetime.

Answer 3

Nope.

Although Gravity is a warp in Space-Time, it has nothing to do with time dilation. Earth's mass does warp Space-Time, but for us, it has no effect on our perception of time. Time dilation is in reference to travelers, and their approach of the speed of light. It looks like you've mixed the concepts of Special and General Relativity.

The only way to experience a difference in life span with you it.and the people on an another planet would be if their planet moved faster than ours. Size of the planet would not alter our experience of time, as would our speed. It would create a bigger warp, but you still need to be moving to experience time dilation, regardless of the warp.

Answer 4

Yes, this was derived from Einstein's theories, and scientists are currently testing this by sending gyroscopes out into space.

Answer 5

The effect from the earth is infinitely small.

Answer 6

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_time_dilation