The Wierd Reality Of Time Dilation
Time is being bent and stretched all around us
Cast your mind back to 2014, Interstellar is the film of the moment, and the wider public is introduced to the idea of time dilation for the first time. But we don’t need to be daring astronauts to feel the effects of time dilation. It is happening all around us. In fact, time dilation has turned the Earth into a time machine and can be used to prove flat Earthers wrong, welcome to the mind-bendingly strange world of time dilation.
Before we get stuck in, we first need to know what time dilation is. It all starts with Einstein’s theories of general relativity and special relativity.
First, let’s look at special relativity. Einstein developed special relativity to explain abnormal findings in the laws of electromagnetism. James Clerk Maxwell discovered that light travels at 299792458 m/s exactly, never faster or slower. But how could this be?
If I run at 5 m/s and turn on a torch, does the light leave the torch at 5m/s faster than the speed of light? What about Earth’s rotation? Does that mean light going East to West travels slower than West to East?!
No…
