• Question: does time counts in space

    Asked by nicenadia to Alessandro, Angela, Claudia, Marina, Phil on 12 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Alessandro Guazzi

      Alessandro Guazzi answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      Really good question! And something Einstein asked himself! What he found was really surprising: time is not the same for people in different places going at different speeds- time is relative! Essentially what this says is that if you’re going a lot faster (a lot closer to the speed of light) than someone your watch will run slower.
      On earth, these effects are really small, but in space this can become very important. That’s because gravity accelerates you and gives you a speed, and there are some places in space with very high gravity indeed!

    • Photo: Marina De Vos

      Marina De Vos answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      Scientist often describe time as the fourth dimension. According to Einstein’s theory of general relativity, massive objects create distortions in space and time. Near a black hole, these distortions become so strong that time behaves in unexpected ways.
      The website:
      http://hubblesite.org/explore_astronomy/black_holes/encyc_mod3_q15.html
      provides a nice graphical representation

    • Photo: Phillip Wilkinson

      Phillip Wilkinson answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      Great question. Just to add to what Alessandro and Marina have already said, there’s the ‘Twin Paradox’.

      If you had a twin and one of you flew through space whilst the other stayed on earth, when the one in space returns the one on Earth will be older than he is. The longer he is in space for and the further he travels the more noticeable the difference in age will be!

      Fun video explaining this -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOL2d-5-pJ8

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