[time-nuts] A different way to think about time dilation?

Andrew Rodland andrew at cleverdomain.org
Thu Jul 14 13:10:04 EDT 2016


Yes, the math works out. Whether it actually has physical meaning is
kind of a philosophical question, but it's a useful tool.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proper_time#Examples_in_special_relativity
is an example worth looking at.

On Sun, Jul 10, 2016 at 12:01 PM, Chris Albertson
<albertson.chris at gmail.com> wrote:
> Is this a valid TN subject?  It's about time but a little off of the usual
> subject of 10Mhz oscillators.
>
> I heard  of an alternate way to describe time dilation caused by velocity.
>   I think this makes it easier to understand but I've not been able to
> verify the math.  This alternate explanation also makes it easy to see why
> we can never go faster than light.   But I've not seen a mathematical
> derivation so it could be wrong or just an approximation.
>
> Here goes:
>
> 1) We assume a 4 dimensional universe with four orthogonal axis, x, y, z,
> and time (t)
> 2) assume that at all times EVERY object always has a velocity vector who's
> magnitude is "c", the speed of light.  The magnitude of this vector (speed)
> never changes and is the same for every particle in the universe.
>
> This at first seems a radical statement but how is moving at c much
> different from assuming every partial is at rest in t's own reference
> frame?  I've just said it is moving at c in it's own reference frame.  Both
> c and zero are arbitrary speeds selected for connivance.
>
> How can this be?  I know I'm sitting in front of my computer and have not
> moved an inch in the last four hours.  c is faster than that.   Yes you are
> stationary in (x,y,z) but along the t axis you are moving one second per
> second and I define one second per second as c.  Now you get smart and try
> to move faster than c by pushing your chair backward in the Y direction at
> 4 inches per second.  So you THINK your velocity magnitude is the vector
> sum of c and 4 inch/sec which is greater than c.   BUT NO.  Your speed
> along Y axis causes time dilation such that your speed along T is now
> slower than 1 second/second.   In fact if you push your chair backward
> along Y real fast at exactly c your speed along t axis is zero, time
> stops.  Try pushing your chair at 0.7071 * c and you find yourself moving
> through t at 0.7071 sec/sec and the vector sum is c.  You can NOT change
> you speed from c all you can do to change the direction of the velocity
> vector and your speed through time is determined by the angle between that
> vector and the t axis.
>
> It works ok to just use one of the three spacial axis because we can always
> define them such that (say) the Y axis points in the direction of motion.
> So a plot of your speed in the dy,t plane covers the general case and looks
> like an arc of radius c.
>
> If this works out then I have some work to do, like defining momentum as a
> function of the area between the velocity vector and the t axis
>
>
> --
>
> Chris Albertson
> Redondo Beach, California
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