Does time slow down in highly curved space? And if so why? And would humans be able to detect this? What would the effect be?
All these things are relative. But if you mean `curved space` to mean gravity, then yes, a gravitational field will affect a clock. The effect could measured by looking at the difference of two clocks ; one clock down a deep mine and another up a high mountain.
Do I understand you correctly? so if I were to calibrate two clocks to be exactly the same and put one clock at an extremely high mountain and another clock in a deep mine... a year later or so they would actually read different times from each other because time slowed down for the deeper clock?????Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Yes. time will slow down as a gravitational field increases. There seems to be a deep connection between gravity and time. Some people believe that gravity is a force mediated by a particle called a graviton. Some people believe that mass is given to particles by an elusive particle called a higgs boson ( 0 spin ,). It could also be argued that gravity is similar to acceleration. (Can we observe mass increase when we start to approach the speed of light?) Perhaps `gravity` is actually a product of the acceleration of the hypertorous universe...all points of this universe are accelerating (in another dimension).. Any thoughts anyone?
Time doesn't slow down for the deeper clock; it just naturally runs slower than the high clock (the slowness is relative). I give an explanation here.
Perhaps i <b>do</b> stand corrected, But the main difference in the example you gave is that the clocks are <b>moving</b> (<i>which is totally different</i>), and the clocks in this thread are `stationary` and identical apart from the gravity density.
Re: Perhaps i <b>do</b> stand corrected, In Relativity there is no distinction between moving and stationary, there are only relative velocity differences. Since the clocks in both examples have zero velocity with respect to each other, and due the equivalence principle between acceleration and Gravity, the results are the same.
I PERHAPS stand corrected Hehe, Yes, i think there is a connection between gravity and acceleration (see my previous posts) , imho. In any experiment we should remove/minimise anything that will affect the experiment. (so having a clock on a speeding aeroplane and another down a deep mine <b>should</b> give <b>different</b> results, <i>due the motion </i>, to a more controlled experiment,<i> where both are stationary</i>).
Check out this simple Non-Mathematical Proof of Gravitational Time Dilation. First it shows how you are accelerating while you read this; that’s why you feel your chair pressing against you, like you feel your seat press against your back in an accelerating car. Next it has an easy proof of gravitational time dilation, assuming you understand time dilation in special relativity (and if you don’t, here’s an easy rundown of that).
DOH! Hehe, tnx for those links, But did you read all the previous posts? i proposed that the force of gravity is an <i>acceleration</i> in another dimension, (super-inflation by-product). All of my posts assume a relative time frame.
I visualize gravity as space accelerating towards a point. If the surface of the Earth will not collapse inwards under the influence of gravity, then it must accelerate outwards, and does, compliments of the electromagnetic force. The “deep connection between gravity and time” becomes simply special relativistic time dilation as shown in the proof above. What causes mass to accelerate space towards itself (or curve space, as general relativity puts it) is an open question though.
There was a old theory that we lived on a hyper-balloon universe that is expanding. (this exists in a 5th dimension). But it is an interesting point that you made about everything accelerating to-wards a point (the centre of the hyper balloon). We could be living on the inside wall of a hyperballoon (the `distance` to the centre would have to be exponentially scaled , though) Most people accept inflationary theory. however it it true that the fundamental force of gravity (or space and time) is still an open debate.
