- #1
Batman24
- 6
- 0
Trying to understand the "Why" or Relativity.
The thing I don’t like about Einstein’s theory is that he doesn’t really explain why it’s correct, just that it is correct, and he proves it mathematically, and with a few thought experiments and actual experiments. At first I always thought that it was just so complex that I didn’t fully understand it, or that nobody had really explained it to me well enough for it to make sense conceptually. The more I think about it though I’ve decided that I actually do understand it, but the theory it self just isn’t complete.
Not that I think the theory is entirely wrong. Obviously the math and the various experiments do seem to support what Einstein is saying, but the problem I’ve always had is why would simply going fast cause time to slow down. More over why does the speed of light seems to be the point where time stops completely.
I believe the answer must be that the mechanism that causes time to pass is moving at the speed of light, and the closer an object is to traveling at that speed, the less frequently the mechanism can move time forward. So the question is then – what makes up a part of every single object in the universe, and moves around at the speed of light? The answer seems pretty simple to me….Electrons.
Before I get to far ahead of myself here’s the thought experiment that gets me here. Imagine a man in a golf cart sitting parked in a fairway. Then imagine another guy in a golf cart driving in circles round him. A golf cart has a fixed speed because of it’s governor. Let's just say that’s set at 10 mph. So as long as the first golf cart stays parked, there is a fixed time it would take the second golf cart to make one loop around it. Let's say 4 seconds. Two seconds to move from the front of the cart to the back, and two seconds from the back of the cart to the front.
Now imagine what would happen though if the first golf cart started moving forward down the fairway. Let's say at 5 mph to start. Half the speed of the second cart. The second golf cart could continue to make loops around the first cart, but it would be more difficult and take more time. It would now take 4 seconds just to move from the back of the cart to the front, and only one second to move from the front to the back. A net gain of 1 second for a total of 5.
The closer the first cart got to maxing out it’s governor the more dramatic the slow down would be. If the first cart was moving at 8 mph it would take 5 times longer to go from the back to the front, and 1/5 th as long to go from the front to the back, so 10 seconds to move from back to front, and 1/4th of a second to move from front to back.
Then once the first cart hit it’s max of 10 mph the second cart would no longer be able to make a loop. It would have to stay in one position relative to the first cart in order to just keep up with it. The second cart could not change it’s position relative to the first cart without losing ground to the first cart.
The same is true with the position of an electron relative to that of an atom. When the nucleus of an atom is not in motion the electron has no problem zipping around it at the speed of light, but as the nucleus of the atom accelerates towards the speed of light the frequency for which the electron could change it’s position relative to the nucleus would gradually be lessened.
Once the nucleus reaches the speed of light, the electron would have to maintain the exact same position relative to the nucleus of the atom in order to stay apart of the atom as a hole. Since the state of the atom would then not be changing relative to itself, time stops for that atom.
When you really think about it, time is really just the acknowledgment that things have changed. If nothing is changing time isn’t passing. That doesn’t mean that if you just stand still time won’t pass for you, because even if you don’t move your arms or legs, you’re still breathing, your heart is pumping, and the electrons that make up every atom of your body are still zipping around at the speed of light inside of you.
In order to make time stop for an object, you must prevent the state of the object from changing in anyway relative to itself. The only way to do that is to speed the object up to the speed of light. Making every particle that makes up the structure of the object move in exact unison prevents it’s overall state from changing and therefore stops time from passing for that object.
If this is correct, it would not effect any of Einstein’s calculations drastically at all. All the mathematics would be the same, the only difference might be that instead of time going backwards upon exceeding the speed of light, it would imply that an object would simply break apart and lose it’s cohesion upon exceeding the speed of light.
This may even lend a possible explanation of why there is a difference between special relativity and general relativity since one is dealing with the motion of sub-atomic particles, and it is the motion of the particles themselves that are the basis for it all. I haven’t really thought to much about that though.
Even if I’m wrong about electrons being the cause of time dilation, I think I do have the right idea, maybe just the wrong particle, or perhaps there’s an even smaller particle out there that also moves at the speed of light that we don’t know about.
I’m no physics major though this is simply what I extrapolated from what I do understand. If someone could explain to me why I’m wrong about this, please do.
The thing I don’t like about Einstein’s theory is that he doesn’t really explain why it’s correct, just that it is correct, and he proves it mathematically, and with a few thought experiments and actual experiments. At first I always thought that it was just so complex that I didn’t fully understand it, or that nobody had really explained it to me well enough for it to make sense conceptually. The more I think about it though I’ve decided that I actually do understand it, but the theory it self just isn’t complete.
Not that I think the theory is entirely wrong. Obviously the math and the various experiments do seem to support what Einstein is saying, but the problem I’ve always had is why would simply going fast cause time to slow down. More over why does the speed of light seems to be the point where time stops completely.
I believe the answer must be that the mechanism that causes time to pass is moving at the speed of light, and the closer an object is to traveling at that speed, the less frequently the mechanism can move time forward. So the question is then – what makes up a part of every single object in the universe, and moves around at the speed of light? The answer seems pretty simple to me….Electrons.
Before I get to far ahead of myself here’s the thought experiment that gets me here. Imagine a man in a golf cart sitting parked in a fairway. Then imagine another guy in a golf cart driving in circles round him. A golf cart has a fixed speed because of it’s governor. Let's just say that’s set at 10 mph. So as long as the first golf cart stays parked, there is a fixed time it would take the second golf cart to make one loop around it. Let's say 4 seconds. Two seconds to move from the front of the cart to the back, and two seconds from the back of the cart to the front.
Now imagine what would happen though if the first golf cart started moving forward down the fairway. Let's say at 5 mph to start. Half the speed of the second cart. The second golf cart could continue to make loops around the first cart, but it would be more difficult and take more time. It would now take 4 seconds just to move from the back of the cart to the front, and only one second to move from the front to the back. A net gain of 1 second for a total of 5.
The closer the first cart got to maxing out it’s governor the more dramatic the slow down would be. If the first cart was moving at 8 mph it would take 5 times longer to go from the back to the front, and 1/5 th as long to go from the front to the back, so 10 seconds to move from back to front, and 1/4th of a second to move from front to back.
Then once the first cart hit it’s max of 10 mph the second cart would no longer be able to make a loop. It would have to stay in one position relative to the first cart in order to just keep up with it. The second cart could not change it’s position relative to the first cart without losing ground to the first cart.
The same is true with the position of an electron relative to that of an atom. When the nucleus of an atom is not in motion the electron has no problem zipping around it at the speed of light, but as the nucleus of the atom accelerates towards the speed of light the frequency for which the electron could change it’s position relative to the nucleus would gradually be lessened.
Once the nucleus reaches the speed of light, the electron would have to maintain the exact same position relative to the nucleus of the atom in order to stay apart of the atom as a hole. Since the state of the atom would then not be changing relative to itself, time stops for that atom.
When you really think about it, time is really just the acknowledgment that things have changed. If nothing is changing time isn’t passing. That doesn’t mean that if you just stand still time won’t pass for you, because even if you don’t move your arms or legs, you’re still breathing, your heart is pumping, and the electrons that make up every atom of your body are still zipping around at the speed of light inside of you.
In order to make time stop for an object, you must prevent the state of the object from changing in anyway relative to itself. The only way to do that is to speed the object up to the speed of light. Making every particle that makes up the structure of the object move in exact unison prevents it’s overall state from changing and therefore stops time from passing for that object.
If this is correct, it would not effect any of Einstein’s calculations drastically at all. All the mathematics would be the same, the only difference might be that instead of time going backwards upon exceeding the speed of light, it would imply that an object would simply break apart and lose it’s cohesion upon exceeding the speed of light.
This may even lend a possible explanation of why there is a difference between special relativity and general relativity since one is dealing with the motion of sub-atomic particles, and it is the motion of the particles themselves that are the basis for it all. I haven’t really thought to much about that though.
Even if I’m wrong about electrons being the cause of time dilation, I think I do have the right idea, maybe just the wrong particle, or perhaps there’s an even smaller particle out there that also moves at the speed of light that we don’t know about.
I’m no physics major though this is simply what I extrapolated from what I do understand. If someone could explain to me why I’m wrong about this, please do.