Did Einstein show that time slows down at speed, or that clocks slow down?

Question

I've often doubted Einstein when it comes to time dilation. The theory that time slows down the faster you travel.

The reason for my questioning is that all of the comments I've heard on the subject seem, to me, to suggest that clocks would slow down the faster they travelled.

None of the clocks I've seen measure time, the clocks count the number of oscillations or ticks, and knowing how long it normally takes to oscillate we can then work out the 'time'.

If that is the case, I can simply slow down time by 'rigging' a clock.

It doesn't mean that I've stopped or slowed down time - just the clock.

Am I incredibly wrong, or is there something to this?

No-one has convinced me yet. I know of the two aeroplanes - flown in opposite directions around the world. All that proved is that CLOCKS slow down. I'm sure that I could've done the same thing by putting one digital watch in the freezer, and another in the airing cupboard for a week!

Answer 1

haa haa you actually thought somone will convince you.
i don't know anything clocks except how to read the time
sorry for being useless just wanted two points.
you should trust whatever einsten said before he died
hes really clever.
bye!

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

You are forgetting about the relativity point. The clock would not seem to be going slow to anybody in the same time frame as the clock, only to people who are moving considerably slower and therefore in a different time frame. There is no rigging of the clock. If you think you know better than Einstein I suggest you write up your theory and present it to the scientific world at large. However, be prepared to be ridiculed!

Answer 4

Time does not slow down at speed, and clocks never 'slow down'. Clocks will always operate at the same mechanical speed regardless of frame of reference. How you measure the time passed on that clock is another matter entirely when dealing with relativity. A clock can 'tell time' at whatever speed it wants, but if it deviates from what we understand as time then it's not accurate. You can't slow down a clock and make 25 hours in a day and expect it to be so.

The thing is, time is affected by space and gravity. The faster you travel, the more mass you attain, and therefore relative to you, time seems the same, but relative to any other frame of reference, especially a stationary observer, the amounts of time measured will seem different. This is why the Twin's Paradox works, because one travels at light speed very far away, time slows down because their frame of reference experienced more gravity. Both twins perceive the same amount of time passing though.

Answer 5

Ok, here's the deal. A clock is a measuring tool. Using a mechanical, electrical, or atomic method, it maesures the passage or a quantity we know as time.

If you are traveling at relativistic speeds, the methods that measure that passage of time do not appear to change to you. That means that a 30 minute segment of EARL would still take 30 minutes to you, IF it was broadcast from what ever device you were on.

On the other hand, to an observer on Earth, watching you through a telescope, the show might take an excrusating hour to watch. (30 minutes of EARL is bad enuff). On the other hand if yoy were able to look at the guy on Earth, it would appear to you thet the same episode of EARL would last maybe 10 minutes.

Neither time is "wrong" Both are correct, but dependent on your frame of reference.

Answer 6

how does your body give you a sense of time?

i dont know either, some chemical reaction or other, but if the random nuclear decays that an atomic clock uses to keep time are affected by this, what makes you think your body is immune?

are you special or something?

i guess the point i'm trying to make is that this phenomenon effects all the processes in the universe.
so if it effects the clocks, and what your body tells you, and all the processes you can think of that measure time in some way, then yes... it slows time

"oo so it just effects the clocks and stuff, not time itself" i hear you say. well, you have to measure time with something. and if every possible measure tells us time is slowing, every single one, it would be silly to think otherwise. wouldn't it?

Answer 7

Einstein "Theorized" this theory, but didn't prove it. It was verified later during the Space missions and the flying of an atomic clock around the world.
That time really slows down, is the main idea behind his theory of relativity. Everything is "RELATIVE" to something else, whether it is real or imaginary!

Answer 8

According to the ‘Theory of Special Relativity’, first published in 1905 by Albert Einstein, time dilation occurs for clocks separating at a velocity approaching that of the speed of light. The formula for time dilation is: -

t(your time) = t(their time)/(sqrt(1 - v(separation)^2)/c^2))

The ^2 symbol means to the power of two and the sqrt() means the square root of the terms between the brackets and 'v' is the velocity of separation with 'c' as the speed of light.

For example, if an astronaut moves away from you with a constant velocity of 90 % of the speed of light for one year by the atomic clock that he is carrying then your clock will tell you that: -

T(yours) = 1(year)/sqrt(1-(0.9c)^2/c^2)

or
T(yours) = 1(year)/sqrt(1-0.81)
or
T(yours) = 2.294.. years have passed for you.

However, according to his calculations in 2.294 years of his clocks 'ticks' only one years of your clock 'ticks' have passed. This paradox occurs because in post Newtonian or relativistic physics there is no preferred frame of reference.

The best examples of time dilation may be found in relativistic particle physics experiments such as those conducted a CERN or Fermi Lab; where according to clocks in our frame of reference, particles 'live' much longer than their predicted stationary 'half-life’s'.

Finally, Einstein used the term 'clock' as a metaphor for time itself and he only talked about perfect idealised clocks. As far as we know time flows smoothly (?) onwards and cannot (at present anyway) be measured in quantised 'ticks' or 'tocks'. The paradoxes introduced by Einstein helped to remove awkward infinities from the upper end(s) of physics and so the best way of getting to grips with the concepts of special and general relativity is to perform calculations with the equations Einstein left us with!

Answer 9

Yes, Einstein had developed a theory which relates time with velocity. If U r moving in space at a speed of light and come back after a year from your watch, more than a century would have passed on this earth. I saw a picture when very young, I think in 60"s. It was an English movie with title 'Odessy-2000'. In that picture when the astronaut decided to return earth after traveling 15 -20 years , he arrived on earth but 150 years had passed here. This gives us hope that we can live couple of thousand of years if we travel in space in future with very high speed near to light.

Answer 10

It's not just the clocks that slow down, it's everything. So even your heart will beat more slowly!

Answer 11

time is dilated. and rigging a clock doesnt dilate time. it misrepresents time. the clock slows down because time slows down. and that is because the oscillation of the quartz crystal or whatever method they use to measure time slows down due to time dilation.

so yes time does slow down.