This topic is inspired by a topic in kids corner (cafe). I didn’t feel like starting this discussion there. so here it is.
We think that time (or our perception of time) alters with an increase in velocity relative to the speed of light. So time is relative to the observer and is not a constant.
The fact you have to put so much energy into a system to alter the relative aspect of time would seem to imply that time does indeed have an energy, or at least an inertia.
The mass/time relationship is interesting. Does the enormous mass of a black hole actually alter time, or is it the intense gravity inducing matter to relativistic speeds which does this? If gravity is an aspect of mass then I suppose you could say the former. If time is only an aspect of perception however, the mass would not alter time but your perception of time would alter when in the influence of that mass.
before I answer your post more in depth, can I ask you what exactly mean by 'perception of time'? You mean the psychological perception of it?
exactly.
in that case, I wouldn't say that time being relative is a psychological perception. Because there are experiments in which one observer makes two observations in different time frames and can measure different time scales.
If you know a bit about physics, here's the description of that experiment:
there are numerous subatomic particles, one of which are the muons. Like all particles such muons have a half life, which is fixed for that specific particle. So after a certain time period only half of the original amount of muons are left. Or in reverse: if a certain portion of the original muons are left, then a certain amount of time must have passed.
Now consider two populations of muons:
1. muons entering the earth's atmosphere from outer space: these are travelling at very high speeds compared to the observer.
muons in a laboratory, which are taveling at a relatively low speed compared to the observer.
now, the observer measures after 10 seconds (from HIS OWN time) the amount of muons left in the observation he got from 1. and from 2. and he sees that there are more muons left from observation 1 than from 2. This can only mean that the physical time for muon 1 compared to him is slower than muon 2 compared to him.
time has a speed and a dimension meaning it advances constatly with a specific lenght . there's no point of return . thgis lenght interval is different to other lenght intervals of space .
without time there would be no advancement in life .
time measures all biological existences
Now consider two populations of muons:
1. muons entering the earth's atmosphere from outer space: these are travelling at very high speeds compared to the observer.
muons in a laboratory, which are taveling at a relatively low speed compared to the observer.
now, the observer measures after 10 seconds (from HIS OWN time) the amount of muons left in the observation he got from 1. and from 2. and he sees that there are more muons left from observation 1 than from 2.** This can only mean that the physical time for muon 1 compared to him is slower than muon 2 compared to him**.
But this also means that "TIME" is also relative to the speed? isn't it and why ignore the mass-enrgy conversion in muons? after all they are highly unstable particles.
And lets not forget, that this TIME measurment is also relative to OUR psychological perception of time. :-)
There is a possibility that it is not actually time that slows down or fastens, but it is the observer (the sci fic concept of hyper time). The constant is the speed of light. The more velocity it is, and maybe it is not the time that slows down but the observer become more faster and feels the time is slowed down.
But then again, speed of light is not constant either, it does change its speed in diff conditions and its been proven. There is another question. If time is relative to speed of light what happenes in black whole where light can not escape or move?
If time stops if the speed of light is reached (either it actually does or the observer feels it does) what happens when the light slows down? or finally stops?
According to latest versions of science neither time nor space is absolute. For every observer its different. Time is relative to the velocity, that is speed of light. & we know that gravitational force can effect light. Bcos as we now know gravitational force is caused by the particles called graviton and they r of spin 2. They contain no mass and hence the long range and for the same reason this force is the weakest of all. And it effects the light as we now know the light is both, particles or waves, just how u would like to see (i dont wanna go in the depth of particle theory) The effect of gravitation on light has been proven near large bodies such as our sun during eclipse etc.
Now assume the gravitational force is so strong that light cannot escape the event horizon, the time which is relative to the velocity of light will become zero for the observer who is inside the event horizon.
So to answer ur question of time is relative to what i would say relative to the velocity of light. & there r only two ways to slow it down, travel that fast, or stop the light.
