One evening in the spring of 1905 Albert Einstein, then a patent clerk in Bern, after trudging through his day's work
decided to board a tram car on his way home
Einstein would often wrap up his work as soon as possible to contemplate the truths of the universe in his free time
It was one of these thought experiments he devised on that tram car that revolutionized modern physics forever
While receding away from the Zytglogge clock tower Einstein imagined, what would happen if the tram car were receding at the speed of light
He realized that if he were to travel at
186,000 miles per second the clocks hands would appear to completely freeze
At the same time Einstein knew that back at the clock tower the hands would tick along at their normal pace
For Einstein time had slowed down. This thought blew his mind.
Einstein concluded that the faster you move through space the slower you move through time. How is this possible?
Einstein's work was heavily influenced by two of the most iconic physicists of all time
First there were the laws of motion discovered by his idol Isaac Newton and second were the laws of electromagnetism
laid down by James Clerk Maxwell
Newton's laws insisted that velocities are never absolute
But always relative, so that their magnitudes must be appended by the phrase "with respect to"
For instance a train travels at 40 km/h with respect to someone at rest
However, it only travels 20 km/h with respect to a train traveling 20 km/h in the same direction
Or it travels 60 km/h with respect to another train traveling in the opposite direction at 20 km/h
This is also true for the velocities of Earth, the Sun and the entire Milky Way galaxy
On the other hand Maxwell found that the speed of an electromagnetic wave such as light is fixed at an exorbitant
299,792,458 m/s regardless of who observes it
however
Maxwell's notion seems incompatible with Newton's notion of relative velocities
If Newton's laws are truly universal. Why should the speed of life be an exception?
This presented Einstein with a daunting dilemma
This conflict between the ideas of Newton and Maxwell can be demonstrated with another of Einstein's brilliant thought experiments
Einstein imagined himself on a train platform witnessing two lightning bolts strike on either side of him
Now because Einstein stands precisely in the middle of the two strikes
He receives the resulting beams of light from both sides at the same time
However things get more complicated when someone on a passing train views this event while whizzing past Einstein at the speed of light
If the speed of light conforms to the rules of relativity, then the person on the train wouldn't witness the lightning strike simultaneously
Logically the light closer to the man on the train would reach him first
A measurement of the speed of light made by both men would differ in magnitude, this would contradict an apparently fundamental truth of the universe
Einstein had to make a difficult choice. Either Newton's laws were incomplete or the speed of light was not a universal constant
Einstein realized that the two notions could coexist with a small tweak in Newton's laws
To get rid of the discrepancy in the measurements Einstein suggested the time itself for the man on the train
Must slow down to compensate for the decrease in speed such that the magnitude remains a constant
Einstein called this absurdity "Time Dilation" and his newfound theory "Special Relativity"
Newton believed the time moved unflinchingly in a single direction forward
Einstein however had just realized the time stretches and contracts varying with velocity
Due to its malleability time like space
Deserved its own dimension in fact Einstein claimed that the two were one and the same
together they formed a four-dimensional fabric or continuum called space-time
upon which the mundane events of the universe would unfold
Einstein Suggested that massive objects like the Sun didn't pull bodies like earth with a mysterious
Inexplicable tug, but rather curved the fabric of space-time around them
Forcing earth to fall down into this steep valley
A highly simplified analogy is the dip in a trampoline made by a falling bowling ball
If a marble were placed on that trampoline the marble would immediately roll towards the bowling ball in the center
This is also true for Earth's gravity
We are pinned to the ground because space so distorted by the Earth's mass pushes us down from above
however the slump in the fabric around Earth is not uniform and
Earth's gravity grows more intense as we move towards its center where the curvature is at a maximum
Therefore like the marble on the trampoline an object that falls towards the earth accelerates as it races towards the center of the planet
It falls faster when just above the surface than it does say when it is slightly above the atmosphere
But hey according to special relativity the faster you move through space the slower you move through time
This means that time runs slower on Earth's surface than it does above the atmosphere
Now
Because different planets have different masses and thus different gravitational strengths
They also accelerate objects at different rates as we have learned this means a variable passage of time
This is what happens in the movie interstellar when the protagonists land on a planet in the proximity of a black hole
The gravity on the planet is so severe that one hour on the surface is equivalent to seven years on earth
To understand how motion affects time let's consider the simplest timekeeping mechanism
A second passes each time the photon is reflected
Let's imagine two people one in a spaceship slightly above Earth's atmosphere and the second on top of a small hill
Just above the Earth's surface
Both are watching a man fall from space towards the ground
Let's say that the falling man is carrying the photon clock explained a moment ago
What do each of the two men observe as the man falls past them?
What they observe is eerily similar to what a stationary person would observe when watching a ball bounce in a moving train.
As the man falls from space, the light in his clock would appear to move in triangles to the two observers
This would mean that the light travels a longer distance
consequently stretching the duration of a second
It is obvious that the length of triangles the light traces and therefore the duration of a second is
proportional to the velocity of the falling man
When we recall that objects closer to the center of the planet fall faster
We can determine the time would appear to pass slower to the man on the hill
Than it does to the man in the spaceship above. Of course the difference is infinitesimal
The difference between the time measured by clocks at the tops of mountains and at the surface of Earth is a matter of nanoseconds
time dilation affects every clock whether it relies on basic electromagnetism or a complex combination of
Electromagnetism and Newton's laws of motion. In fact even biological processes are slowed down
Yes, that's right your head is slightly older than your feet