Thread: time dilation while traveling

I have a question to time dilation while traveling.
If it where possible to travel at 4/5 of the speed of light, it would seem to us that the person traveling would travel 4/5 of the speed of light.

But now comes the problem: If time slows down for the traveler, will it be a higher speed for the traveler?
so if the traveler travels at 4/5 of the speed of light and has a time dilation(relative to his start point) of 1/2 would it be faster for the traveler?

not sure if I understand your question, but this should clear it up ( a video on Time dilation and light clocks):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7vpw...elated&search=

Time dilation is the slowing down of time so i would think that although he would still be going at the same speed it would seem to him slower as it would take a longer time for him in this time dilation to reach the destination while a person observing would see that he has not slowed down at all.

Originally Posted by Red

Time dilation is the slowing down of time so i would think that although he would still be going at the same speed it would seem to him slower as it would take a longer time for him in this time dilation to reach the destination while a person observing would see that he has not slowed down at all.

The faster you travel, the slower it seems for viewer, the time speeds up for the passagier. Exactly the other way around, so if I would travel at the speed of light around the earth, I would never mesure that I have hit the speed of light since time bent and pervented the passanger for speeding even more up.

It is very wierd to me, one could say that the speed of light is the calculating point of the universe(like a computer).


In future, I believe that we wont have anything like km/h (or miles per hour)
but something more complicated, since time is relative.
I belive it would be mesured by the energy that is out into the machiene, which would seem the easyest possibilety.

what were some of the experiments they did to prove time dialation? There was the one with the atomic clock on the plane, what else?

they took a peace of something (in German Teilchen) and put it into a machine (Teilchen-Beschleuniger).
This thing could never be sped up more that alitlle before light speed (lightspeed - 0.000001)

The thing seemed to gain mass (Im not sure about this) and though that gain waight, have you guessed? Yes! and thoguh that it will slow down.

Idon't know exactly how this has to do with timedilation, but if you think about it its got to do allot with time(it just seems like if it gains wait).

Let's say you have a friend who has a spaceship and he accelerates away from the earth and travels 90% the speed of light. Each of you can see the other's clock. From the perspective of your friend in the ship, he doesn't notice any change in the rate of his clock's ticking.

From your perspective on earth, as you view his clock, you see that his clock is ticking 1/2 slower than your clock.

But from your friend's perspective in the ship, as he views your clock, your clock on earth is ticking 1/2 slower than his clock.

So, for each of you, your own clocks tick as usual and neither of you notice any change in the rate of your own clock's ticking.

It is only for speeds relative to each that time dilation is noticed, and only for each observer relative to the other. Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity.

For your friend in the ship, he is still traveling at 90% the speed of light because speed is distance/time. The rate of his clock to him remains constant and is not slowed, so as he measures his speed as distance/time, his speed is not changed by time dilation, and his speed does not become slower.

Time dilation is proven every day in satellites, for instance. The Global Positioning Satellites orbit the earth at 18.500 mph. The atomic clocks on these satellites tick a small fraction of a second slower than clocks on earth, due to time dilation. Before they're sent into orbit, their clocks are set to tick this fraction of a second faster than earth clocks. So when they reach orbital speed, as their clocks tick slightly slower, their clocks will tick at the same rate as earth clocks.

Hope all this helps a little and is not too confusing.

"what were some of the experiments they did to prove time dialation? There was the one with the atomic clock on the plane, what else?"

i cant remember exactly what it was ... it had to do with the decay of particles falling through the earth's atmosphere at speed close the speed of light, they lasted much longer from the point of view of observers on earth than they do when those particles are not moving....

Originally Posted by StarMountainKid

From your perspective on earth, as you view his clock, you see that his clock is ticking 1/2 slower than your clock.

But from your friend's perspective in the ship, as he views your clock, your clock on earth is ticking 1/2 slower than his clock.

So, for each of you, your own clocks tick as usual and neither of you notice any change in the rate of your own clock's ticking.

But that's not true time dilation, just a natural effect coming from the fact that the distance increases and therefore the time it takes for the light to travel to you. When traveling back the effect would be reversed. Nevertheless Einstein claims that the traveling person would return younger than the one who stayed on earth.

Another mind experiment would be:
use accoustic clocks instead, where each clock shouts the time every ten seconds. You'd only have to travel at a few hundred mph to get the effect of hearing the other one's clock shouting every 20 seconds. That doesn't mean that there is any time/space magic going on.

I still do think, no matter where, or how, or who to you ever will travel, nothing
ever will be happen to time. Looking out of the spaceship there might be
some (seeming ) distortion to what the ship was surrounded by, time itself
but will remain stable. It's like traveling in a car or train the first time seeing,
and probably not in the same way hearing, the outer world rushing by, but
that's it.

I ones have seen a tv program the host was daring to say reaching light
speed wouldn't take us far. Velocities had to me much higher resp. faster to
take us as far as we have to go.

So its mainly how to take space ships there and to operate them under
those conditions (at this speeds, navigation, etc. ).

It's remaining rather practical difficulties that ever something was gonna
happen to time.

Steve

There have been many experiments carried out by physicists that verified time dilation.

http://home.fnal.gov/~pompos/light/light_page18.html

And:
(quote) During a Shuttle mission, the orbital speed is only a tiny fraction of the speed of light (namely, 1/42857th), and therefore the "time dilation", as the effect it is called, is also tiny, but it is there nevertheless, as Shuttle experiments have proven. For example, a highly precise atomic clock flying in an experiment called NAVEX on STS-61A/Challenger in 1985 measured a slowdown of 0.000,000,000,295 seconds for each second of flight, almost exactly what Einstein’s formulas predicted. For a Shuttle mission of ten days duration (= 864,000 seconds), the time slowdown amounts to 0.000255 seconds (= 255 microseconds), and by that much is the crew younger on their return than if they had stayed home. (end quote)

Link: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/qanda3.html#54

Also here's this link: http://www.design.chalmers.se/people...elativity.html

No way.