How does Time Dilation work?

Question

I know that relatively, a person moving at light speed ages much slower than a person at rest. The closer one gets to light speed, the slower time moves in relation to a person at rest. To the person moving at light speed time elapses regularly, but thousands of years pass for he person at rest. How does this work?? Can somebody explain relatively simply how time would move that much quicker for somebody moving at light speed, in relation to one at rest?

Answer 1

first of all.....

movement and rest are relative - the really basic concept of relativity..

also a person can never travel at the speed of light......

time dilation occurs because of the invariancy of the speed of light....i.e . no matter how fast you go...the speed of light will be c only

Answer 2

Einstein's theory of relativity starts by pointing out that there is a fairly cohesive geometry, based originally on Euclid's axioms and precepts, and there is also the real physical world, in which "common sense" maths is no longer reliable at any speed reaching a substantial fraction of light speed.  You're going to have to build a whole new model of how the universe works.  This cannot be done simply.  Here is a website you can start at, but remember, even Einstein's theories have been adjusted since he formulated them.

http://www.bartleby.com/173/

The special theory comes first because it is applied from a particular framework, or point of observation, the general theory stretches this in all directions.  The good news is that it takes hard work, rather than brilliance, to get to grips with his ideas.  Good luck.

Answer 3

The time dillation is found in a example of clocks. In a clock, the moving parts are in sequence, when in acceleration, the parts are not in harmony, the front is moving away from the back so the back will move longer to reach the front, all the longer as the speed makes.

So, in the person who is as a rest, he is in harmony, so the time he experiences normal time, while on the space ship, the normal time will be the time taken for the clock to engage in the movements of the acceleration. I will feel time is moving normally because my clock is working normally although it is moving slower because I am accelerating and so the clock has to move in my coverage.

Answer 4

It's a difficult concept to explain.

Think of the speed of light barrier as a wall that you can't breach or even reach but just smash up against. It squeezes you temporally as you smush up against it relative to the rest of the universe.

But this analogy fails in light of frames of references. You can't have any absolute frame of reference. (not even rotationaly)

Answer 5

Here is a simple example:

If there is a man running across a football field at a constant rate of ten yards per second. It would take him 10 seconds to cross. Let us assume that the football field is oriented such that the long dimension lies exactly north-south. If the man diverts some of his motion to the east-west dimension, he begins to move slower through the north-south dimension. If he runs at a diagonal, it takes him longer to cross the the field.

This is an analogy for the time dimension (the north-south) dimension, and the space dimensions (the east-west) dimension. We have a fixed speed. When we are stationary in the space dimensions (the man running only north-south), we move faster through the time dimension. As we move through space, we divert some of that motion.

Of course, it is not as simple as this. There is no "stationary" benchmark against which to compare motion. If we are both is space, and you pass me (according to me), I will see that you are aging slower, but you could claim, with equal validity, that I am moving and aging slower and that you are stationary.