Can we distort time?

[Johnsonontheleft]

It's always assumed that we have no control over time, but do we? Space & time are interlinked - we can move around spatially so it's not a huge stretch to suggest that we could do the same with time.

If you spend half an hour watching paint dry it seems like ages. If you're busy time seems to fly. Is that time being distorted?

 

[johnny on the spot]

Well Good Friday was on a different date last year, does that count?

 

[TCIB]

No that is just perception.

Nature distorts spacetime all the time bud. The more mass the slower time goes relative to something further away from that mass.
You can also go very very fast like 99.99% the speed of light, say a train is doing that and you try to walk forward on that train space time will slow.
It will not let you break the speed of light, this is a fundamental law of nature.

 

[dronefromsector7g]

No.

<<awaits long-winded Damocles counter-argument>>

 

[worsleyweb]

No.

<<awaits long-winded Damocles counter-argument>>

He probably patented it.

 

[SkyBlueFlux]

Not only can we distort time, you do it literally every second of every day without realising it.

Whenever you travel, no matter how slowly, your body is actually subject to the laws of special relativity. When an object moves it experiences 'time dilation'. That is, the faster something travels, the more time seems to slow down in its own reference frame. This is a natural consequence of having a constant speed of light. You wouldn't notice the difference as your biological functions work at the same pace, but when you stop moving the world around you has 'experienced' more time passing than you have.

Therefore technically, if you walk to the shops, and your wife has stayed at home on the sofa, by the time you get back your wife has actually aged ever so slightly more than you have. It's obviously not even noticeable on every day scales, and only really comes into effect when you travel significantly fast.

I know this isn't what you were getting at, but hey I'm bored.

Edit: TCIB beat me to it. Like lightning that fella.

 

[urmston]

If you spend half an hour watching paint dry it seems like ages.

Does it?

Why do it then?

 

[foetus]

Watch Interstellar. Great movie.

 

[TCIB]

You can tell em about the fun facts regarding gps and time if you like flux hehe.

 

[SkyBlueFlux]

You can tell em about the fun facts regarding gps and time if you like flux hehe.

I would but every time I tell somebody "without the theory of relativity we wouldn't have GPS" they all come back with "that's good because mine's shit and it tells me to turn down dead ends, can't beat a good ol'map".