According to the theory of relativity, what would happen?

Question

I know that this is a very theoretical question, that probably can't be answered, but do your best :)

According to Einsteins theory of relativity, how would an immobile object in a vacuum, frozen as close to the Absolute zero as possible and subjected to as little gravitation as possible, perceive time?

I know the theory of relativity states that everything perceive time differently according to their motion, so what i'm actually asking is how an object, that by and large is in no motion at all, would perceive time.

If an object could perceive, that is :)

Answer 1

If you ran past it and looked at its clock, it would appear to be running slower than your clock. It however, would perceive time at the same rate whether it was moving or not.

Answer 2

First, I don't think that either temperature or gravity affect time.

Second, the "relativistic effects"  due to speed are apparent only at HIGH speed, not low (or zero) speed. (As speed approaches speed of light, time approaches zero)

>IF< gravity can affect time, it is only the presence of huge amounts of gravity, not extremely small amounts.

So, assuming this object could sense time at all, I would propose that under these circumstance you decribe,  it sees nothing different.

Now, IF you reach Absolute Zero you get into what is known as theose-Einstein Condensate situation, where the paw of physics may change.  If you reached Absolute Zero, then I wouldn;t hazzard a guess as to what might be seen.

Note that Absolute Zero has NEVER been reached.

Answer 3

It's physical motion that relativity is talking about, not thermal motion of molecules.

So an object at close to 0K will perceive time the same way it would at a higher temperature.

.

Answer 4

Provided it was able to perceive time it would perceive it just as we do.  It is by the way incorrect to say that things perceive time differently if they are in motion.  Everything, whether moving fast or slow, perceives time in the same way in its own co-ordinates relative to which it is stationary.  If 2 observers A and B are moving relative to each other then (e.g) A will observe the passage of time differently in B's co-ordinate system but not in its own.  There is no absolute motion and also no immobility - hence the name, "relativity".

Answer 5

all motion is relative, saying that an object is stationary or moving doesn't really make sense unless you say what it is stationary or moving with respect to.

In our own frame of reference we can always consider ourselves as stationary and that the world is moving around us, so our measurement of length and time never changes in our own frame

the theory of relativity (keyword: relativity) is for when we observe motions on a moving object ie in another frame or reference, such as a space man brushing his teeth on a fast moving space ship

we will see him brushing in slow motion

he will see us brushing in slow motion

we will see ourselves brushing normally

he will see himself brushing normally

we will measure his spaceship as shorter

he will measure our car as shorter

we will measure our car as normal

he will measure his spaceship as normal

we will measure his spaceship traveling forwards with velocity, v

he will measure our car traveling backwards with velocity, v

.,.,

Answer 6

As above, temperature does not affect motion at the relativistic level. Relativity is concerned with larger scale mechanical motion, not the small oscillations and and motion of very small objects (i assume the object is very small, as it is subjected to little gravitation, either that or it is in the vacuum of space far from any mass distribution)

Quantum mechanics and statistical methods are used for quantifying properties of small objects, the theory of relativity actually begins to break down when the curvature of spacetime becomes infinite, such as at a singularity... This is part of the reason why we expect a unified theory combining relativity and quantum mechanics will give us a theory of quantum gravity.

Secondly, if we consider a body to be perfectly stationary, we are commenting on its motion relative to something else, such as the universe. The universe is expanding at a certain rate, so we cannot consider the universe to be fixed/stationary either.

But, if we do assume it is perfectly stationary relative to every other reference frame, then it will perceive time running at a faster rate than any object in motion, (but this is only because of time dilation (time slowing) of the object in motion) although the difference will be negligible unless the moving object has a speed comparable to the speed of light c.

Answer 7

Motionlessness is impossible! Here’s is why

Two things you got to thoroughly understand

1. You can, as an observer, never come to know if an object is completely stationary or not, from the universes point of view, which is what, being immobile means.

2. The hypothetical situation you are talking about indeed exists, its a BLACK HOLE except it will be in motion, due to the previous point.

So now we feel good that there actually exists something like what we just thought about, but unfortunately for a guy, inside a black hole. there is no 'concept' of time.

This is because, your situation, in its perfect ideal sense, can only exist when the matter you are observing tears up space-time, which is nothing but achieving a state where I observe no time.(which is what a black hole is)

To understand, why we cannot become perfectly stationary let’s consider the following example, assume that you and me are two astronauts stranded in space above the earth,

when you look at me, you see me moving with a constant velocity, you then pick up your radio and say , 'hey cool guy put your jet packs to reverse mode your moving too fast', on the other hand I would feel that you are moving and I am not, now I radio back saying that , 'come on stop joking, its your the one how is moving'. So we both don’t agree on whose moving and whose not, fine, but now suppose a third guy from earth sees us through his telescope ,what would he feel?

He would feel that we both have certain different velocities moving aimlessly in space.

Thus you could never make all observers have the same observation(see the same thing).Or there will always exist an observer, observing the object in some other way, in our above example with some other velocity.

So now we understand why an object can never become absolutely stationary, but can only be stationary relative to something. Thus thinking of how it might observe time is impossible

However there is one entity which is observed by all observers to be having the same speed this is light. But this is due to bending of space- time which our above example does not require.

Answer 8

theoretically, if you were to space travel to an object without motion (relative to everything else in space) and stay there for 2 years, you would age 2 years while everyone else would age slower; let's say 1 year on earth. during your stay, you would perceive time just as you did here on earth :)