Imagine a spaceship traveling at 95% of the speed of light to a planet 9.5 light-years away. But the effect becomes noticeable only at velocities approaching the speed of light, commonly symbolized by c. One of its consequences, according to Boston University physicist Andrew Duffy (opens in new tab), is that two observers moving at a constant speed relative to each other measure different times between the same events. The principle that the speed of light is the same for all observers plays a key role in special relativity. The theory of relativity has two parts - special relativity and general relativity - and time dilation features in both. (Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images) (opens in new tab) The shuttle crewmembers would have experienced time dilation and thus would have perceives the trip as taking less time than Earthlings on the ground. Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off from Kennedy Space Center as onlookers watch July 26, 2005, in Titusville, Florida. But we really ought to think of time dilation as "an unexpected truth about space and time, rather than as a property of the clock," Pumplin argued. This seemingly innocuous assumption inevitably leads to the conclusion that "moving clocks run slowly." This phrase is often used as a concise description of time dilation, but it's somewhat misleading because of the emphasis it places on clocks, which are only relevant insofar as we use them to measure time. It's a consequence of Einsteinian relativity, in which time is not as absolute as it might appear the rate at which it passes is different for observers in different frames of reference.Įinstein's starting point was the fact that light always has the same measured speed regardless of the observer's own motion, according to the late Michigan State University physics professor Jon Pumplin. Time dilation is the slowing of time as perceived by one observer compared with another, depending on their relative motion or positions in a gravitational field.
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