Science type people (not you Aster) read this!!

[[AlmightyPyro]]

Ok my brother was telling me about an experiement 'They' 9the people that do those sort of things) did trying to prove the Einsteins theory that if you travel at the speed of light time stops, or whatever.

Essentially, they got two super fast jets to fly around the world in opposite directions (refueling in air ofcourse) at 500 miles an hour. Each Jet had an atomic clock in them (the ones that never get off) and there was one atomic clock at the starting point in Washington. all in all when the whole deal was over the clocks were off set by a fraction of a millisecond. (which is still quite a bit of time speaking in science type terms. <_< >_>)

Has any one else heard this or is it something some one made up and told my brother?
RKolter, I'm looking your way...

[Polkadot]

ive heard of people wanting to try it, im not sure if its actually been done, i may have heard that or not in my physics class im not really sure. i know there have been people wanting to do it for sure though. hope that helps.

[Tears]

I know they have done experiments to prove the einstein time thing, but I rather thought they involved space shuttles...

[Specterz]

It doesn't have to be space shuttles, if the time differs only a little using jets, that means they proved the theory, right?
Or something.
Maybe something for rkolter's comic, even...

[Czar]

I've read somewhere they used Skylab to verify it. But that might've been me misunderstanding the text I was reading.

Phenomenon is Time-Dilation, it's a result of Relativity.

]Wikipedia has this to say.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation
And I'm off to read the article.

[Spriteville, USA]

I think that this experiement (or the core of it) was indeed done. I think it was a clock on the ground though compared to the clock on the plane.

After all wouldn't speed be speed regardless of which direction you're going? So 2 airplanes traveling the same speed for the same distance should have the same dialation.

The only way it might not work is because of the spinning of the earth... but that'd essentially change the speed of the crafts.

[Czar]

The experiment was indeed done, however consulting with the wiki reveals the following:

Gravitational time dilation has been experimentally measured using atomic clocks on airplanes. The clocks that traveled aboard the airplanes upon return were slightly fast with respect to clocks on the ground. The effect is significant enough that the Global Positioning System needs to correct for its effect on clocks aboard artificial satellites, providing a further experimental confirmation of the effect.

Gravitational time dilation essentially means that an observer in orbit looking at a clock on planet will see the clock on planet going faster than the clock on his space station (or reverse, an observer on the ground sees a clock in orbit as going slower than the one on the ground). I won't go into details, cuz frankly, I barely understand them as it is.

Velocity Time dilation only has a real effect when the observer or the observed is travelling at relativistic velocities, meaning you need to go a lot faster than what an aeroplane is capable of.

[AsterAzul]

I'll have you know I've graded and tutored classes on relativity.

(Marks Pyro down in the "naughty" column for the day
but with a purple pen so he doesn't feel bad.)

[RemusShepherd]

Gravitational time dilation essentially means that an observer in orbit looking at a clock on planet will see the clock on planet going faster than the clock on his space station (or reverse, an observer on the ground sees a clock in orbit as going slower than the one on the ground). I won't go into details, cuz frankly, I barely understand them as it is.

It works this way because gravity and acceleration are basically the same thing. Both curve spacetime, and cause differences in the relativity of an observer's frame of reference. So going up into orbit is the same as going really fast in a straight line, for purposes of temporal relativity.

[[AlmightyPyro]]

Ahhh, that all actually makes sense to me. That's cool.

Sorry Aster, I had to put your name in the title for humor reasons, you understand.

[AsterAzul]

I'm just kidding, too.
You made me chuckle.

[Steverules]

You didn't list the entire Wikipedia quote. Wikipedia knows all.

Gravitational time dilation has been experimentally measured using atomic clocks on airplanes. The clocks that traveled aboard the airplanes upon return were slightly fast with respect to clocks on the ground. The effect is significant enough that the Global Positioning System needs to correct for its effect on clocks aboard artificial satellites, providing a further experimental confirmation of the effect. The only explanation was gay cowboys covered in pudding and somehow caused the time/space rift.

[[AlmightyPyro]]

Steve... what would we do with out you?!

[AndrewTaylor]

Oh, God, this is (whatI call) the "If We Neglect General Relativity Then Einstein Was Wrong" Paradox, isn't it?

Presumably their theory is that each jet is moving very fast relative to the other, and therefore each clock must run slower than the other which of course isn't possible. This holds under special relativity, which is the wrong theory to apply to this case as the jets are changing velocities constantly. The paradox is resolved by studying relativity for a year because it's actually rather complicated, who would have thought?

On the other hand, they could have imaginged any one of a million other flaws with the results, but I can't find anything in the post that goes against Einstein.

[Rkolter]

The experiment was indeed done. However, for a more conclusive look, it was redone on the Space Shuttle. It's also been done in race cars, jets, sattelites (GPS systems have to regularly correct for differences in time due to dialation), etcetera. Every single mission we have sent outside earth's orbit has had to account for this effect. Every communications sattelite in orbit has to account for this effect. Supercolliders have to account for this effect. Every GPS system has to account for this effect.

Even at small differences in speeds (500mph, 2000mph, 20,000mph...) there will be a real difference (albeit tiny) between two clocks. When that difference becomes important is when the timing is critical.

The effect is entirely, unquestionably real and verified.

[Joel Fagin]

I never quite got relativity. I do understand how you can overtake light that left Earth a hundred years ago and then look back at it to see what it reflected off of. That's the same principle as overtaking a car that left five minutes before you. Easy.

I know why it might look like you travel in time. I just don't get why you actually do.

- Joel Fagin

[Jim North]

Well, you're travelling in time right now, y'know.

[AsterAzul]

Well, you can study relativity all you want, but to have it make intuitive sense to you is really, really hard.

If you take a good class on relativity, doing and understanding enough problems will eventually give you a more innate understanding than "going fast makes you go to the future."
But if you're forgetful like me, you'll still need to refer back to your textbook every so often, no matter how well you think you know it. It's just not a science that's easy to apply to everyday life.

My old Physics teacher told me that learning relativity is like trying to understand something that has more dimensions than your own mind. It doesn't seem like it could all fit in there at once, but on some days you just have this brilliant flash of inspiration and you can understand it all.
Then you go back to normal a few minutes later.

The best way to understand relativity is to think of everything in frames. I could tell you all about it, but I'd charge you $9.95 an hour.
Or Kolter could explain it for free. Hit it, man!

[[AlmightyPyro]]

*Hits the frame, it breaks*

Way to go Aster!

[Pylon]

*uses tape to patch up theory*

There! Good as new!

*watches as time and space distort*

Oops...