Is the rhythm of time universal in all the universe?

Question

Is the rhythm of time universal in all the universe?

Answer 1

time is everywhere and will continue forever an dwill never end. so yes the rhythm of time is the same here and everywhere else in space and in life

Answer 2

No one really knows.  Stephen Hawkins and Einstien both have theories on this.  I would say no, black holes (gravity), speed of light, I think at extremes these would affect the rhythm of time.

Answer 3

We thought so before 1905.  But after Einstein gave us the theory of relativity in that year, we changed our minds.

It now seems very much the case that time cannot be separated from space.  And one's movement through time and space, as well as the concentration of energy at one's local location, affect the rhythm of time.

Einstein said, in effect, "there is no such thing as 'right now over there'".  To put it more specifically, two events which are "simultaneous" as measured from one reference frame, are in general NOT simultaneous as measured from another reference frame.

This means that simultaneity is _relative_; that there is no such thing as an "absolute now."  And this means the rhythm of time is not universal, but relative.

Answer 4

The 'rhythm of time' is a misnomer, but I understand what you mean.  There's probably no good way to ask it.  The shape of spacetime is affected by the presence of gravitational mass.  That's what general relativity is all about.  Strange distortions in time are expected near large, dense bodies like neutron stars and black holes.  That's the only variation in an otherwise uniform spacetime I have any reason to expect.

Answer 5

Frank is on the right track.  The "rhythm of time," a poetic way to put it, is not constant.  It varies according to where the observer is and where the timed event is.  As f = 1/T, where f is frequency and T is relativistic time, we can see that f, the rhythm of time, does in fact vary with the rate of time passage.

For example, assume a radioactive particle has an emssion rate of F = 1/t when at rest relative to Earth.  t is the period of the decay rate when at rest.  Now put that same particle in an accelerator and get it going v = 1/4 c (where c is light speed).  The period of decay becomes T = t/L(c/4); where L(c/4) = sqrt(1 - .25^2) < 1 so that T = 1.03 t.  In other words, the period of the accelerated particle is 1.03 times that of the unaccelerated particle.  As fT = 1 and Ft = 1 we can write fT = Ft or f/F = t/T = t/1.03t = 1/1.03 < 1.  This means f < F showing that the frequency (rhythm) of the accelerated particle is less than the frequency it had when at rest.

Bottom line, due to relativistic effects, "the rhythm of time" is not universal in all the universe.  The example I gave dealt with the velocity of the particle; gravity also affects the rhythm of time, but those are more complex equations.  We expect time to come to a near halt in the super gravity of a black hole for instance.