Today I want to dismantle two conclusions Einstein reached.
Gravity does not really affect time, but gravity affects clocks. And people age more near the Earth’s surface than at the top of a mountain.
Suppose we have two identical, very accurate clocks. One is at an altitude of 50 km above the Earth’s surface, and another is on the ground. The clock on the ground will always show that less time has passed than the clock at altitude shows. This does not necessarily indicate that time passes at different rates, but gravity can affect the performance of clocks. Gravitational force is stronger at sea level than at altitude because it is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the centres of gravity of two bodies. The body at altitude is farther from the centre of the Earth than a body at sea level, so the attractive force is weaker.
They say that it has been proven through several experiments that a very accurate atomic clock at altitude advances more than a clock at sea level, but who can say that the clock at altitude is giving an accurate measurement if it is affected by a weaker gravitational force? Suppose that the measurement is incorrect and the same amount of time has actually passed.
To test this, we could take the same clock to a region with zero gravity and see what it shows without being affected by gravity. That would be a neutral time, so to speak. We will see that the other clocks (on the ground and at altitude) give different readings compared to that clock, but the real time is the one measured under zero gravity, if this clock is designed to be used under those conditions. And here is the second fallacy that I have heard so many times: that time passes more slowly for a person who lives at sea level than for one who lives at the top of a mountain. Exactly the same amount of time has passed for all of them, but the person on the ground, subjected to a stronger gravitational force, will probably have grown older. It is more difficult for a person to go and get, for example, a pencil in the next room of a house if he is subjected to twice the gravitational force than if he is subjected to the normal gravitational force. This will take more time or energy under twice the gravitational force.
The same happens to clocks. In the case of a traditional clock, it is more difficult to move its hands under a stronger gravitational force, hence the variation in its readings. It is the same if the clock is an atomic one, because atoms weigh too.
So we have dismantled two fallacies:
Time is not affected by gravity, but clocks are affected by gravity and
People do not age more at altitude; they age more at sea level, in any case.
Note: The ideas presented above are personal reflections and have not yet been proven.
Gravity does not really affect time, but gravity affects clocks. And people age more near the Earth’s surface than at the top of a mountain.
Suppose we have two identical, very accurate clocks. One is at an altitude of 50 km above the Earth’s surface, and another is on the ground. The clock on the ground will always show that less time has passed than the clock at altitude shows. This does not necessarily indicate that time passes at different rates, but gravity can affect the performance of clocks. Gravitational force is stronger at sea level than at altitude because it is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the centres of gravity of two bodies. The body at altitude is farther from the centre of the Earth than a body at sea level, so the attractive force is weaker.
They say that it has been proven through several experiments that a very accurate atomic clock at altitude advances more than a clock at sea level, but who can say that the clock at altitude is giving an accurate measurement if it is affected by a weaker gravitational force? Suppose that the measurement is incorrect and the same amount of time has actually passed.
 |
| Michael Jordan spent more time in the air than the others |
The same happens to clocks. In the case of a traditional clock, it is more difficult to move its hands under a stronger gravitational force, hence the variation in its readings. It is the same if the clock is an atomic one, because atoms weigh too.
So we have dismantled two fallacies:
Time is not affected by gravity, but clocks are affected by gravity and
People do not age more at altitude; they age more at sea level, in any case.
Note: The ideas presented above are personal reflections and have not yet been proven.
More on gravity, time and photon mass
For the continuation of this argument, see Dismounting Einstein 2. Kinetic mass of photon.
For a related thought experiment comparing gravity and ageing on Earth and Mars, see We could live longer on Mars than on the Earth.
Comments
Post a Comment
De genio a geni@, ¿Qué me cuentas?
From genius to genius, what do you tell me?