Does time slow down at higher speeds?

Question

Try to keep your answers fairly non technical, I'm not a Physicist! I know that if two clocks are sync'd, and one is moved at a high rate of speed, and then brought back, the times will be different. What I want to know is, if a person leaves earth on a spaceship at near light speed, and returns 100 years later, will 100 years have passed for the person? Of course 100 years would have passed for the rest of the world, but would the person, who is aging slower, be able to do 100 years worth of work?

Answer 1

Let's say that the traveler is traveling just fast enough that 5 years passes while a century passes back on earth. The traveler would only age 5 years, and would only be able to do 5 years' worth of work while on his journey.

Answer 2

This is a great question. From what I have read the person who is moving at near light speed notices no diffefence in the way his clock works, it appears to be ticking normally. This would lead one to think that although 100 years has passed for a slow moving induvidual, the spaceman could get just as much work done, but actually the spaceman is doing everything at a slower rate, that is why his clock seems be OK. If time slows down, so does everyting else related to events, so the answer must be, no.

Answer 3

Yes, time would slow down from the perspective of an outside observer. But the space traveler would experience time in the usual way, his clock advancing regularly and a game of ping-pong with the spaceship robot would all be normal.

But when he gets back, less than 100 years would have passed for him, with less work done. The closer his rocket went to the speed of light, the larger the disparity.

Imagine someone on a train threw a ball at 60 mph in the direction of the train. The speed of the ball from the POV of an outside observer would be faster than 60 mph, obviously. However this is not true of the speed of photons emitted from a flashlight, which are always witnessed to move at the same speed, regardless of POV. That is, light always travels at the same speed, regardless of frame of reference.*

True understanding of the crazy-sounding results of this fact require in-depth investigation and a little imagination as the human experience has no experience with physics at speeds approaching that of light.

*through like materials - light travels slower in air than in a vacuum for example, but disregard that for this phenomenon.

Answer 4

All the astronaut's clocks run slower, including his wristwatch and his biological clock.

Indeed, this illustrates the principle of relativity which dictates that in any moving elevator, the laws of physics are the same as in a stationary elevator and there is no difference whatsoever in the result of any experiment done in any elevator moving at any constant speed from the same experiment done at "rest." Every scientist in every elevator moving at constant speed has the right to consider himself at rest.

He cannot do 100 years worth of work; his clocks tick 1 year (say) and he lives one year of life.

Answer 5

Here's how I understand it: Everything is moving through spacetime (as a single entity) at the speed of light. When you are not moving through space, time is going by at the speed of light. When you move through space at whatever speed, time slows down so that you continue to move through the combination spacetime at the speed of light. The faster you go through space, the slower you go through time. If you could travel at the speed of light, time would stand still.

If a person leaves earth traveling at near the speed of light, very little time may go by for that person (depending on how close to the speed of light he/she is traveling) while 100 years goes by on earth. The person doing the traveling would not be able to do 100 years of work because for that person, only a small amount of time would have gone by.

Answer 6

The degree of time difference would be so infinitesimal as to be an irrelevance. There is no way to totally explain this without an in-depth romp through quantum physics and relativity.

Answer 7

Yes

Answer 8

why would the speed your traveling effect how you age? your body ages and deteriorates slower if your moving faster?

Answer 9

more than one hundred yrs. would have passed on earth for sure. if you want more specific of an answer ask for one.

Answer 10

Did you ever see that episode of superman where he flew round the earth the opposite way to the earths spin, and he reversed time?
I heard that its possible