Peyton Jones

Mr. Yack

Honors Physics

1, May 2018

Special Relativity and Time Dilation

In physics there is a thing called time dilation. Which suggests that an observer that is

watching a moving object clock, will run faster to a person who is directly on the moving object.

Einstein challenged the fact that time is absolute saying that there is a change in time change

between the observer and the person physically on the moving object. He wrote a paper on the

idea titled “The Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies” which upon further examination reveals

that anything that is moving can be measured in a value of time but it is by the perspective that

we watch the moving object that time is not always constant. Which holds true even today with

the experiment done with the atomic clocks on jet planes flying around the world and the U.S

Naval clocks positioned still. The people on the ground have a slower clock than the pilots in

flight. The modern-day technology was exactly congruent to the original experiment done by

Einstein in 1905 proving that time dilation is real, and when we move we experience time

dilation. It is not such a big deal today because or phones and computers have programs in them

that detect movement and account for time dilation in a very complicated formula.

In physics class we assumed that time was constant no matter which perspective the

equation was given to us. While in the real-world time can change depending if you are a

stationary observer or if you are a moving individual. This would throw all of our equations that

included time off, because we would have to determine the position that we are at and then
account for the time dilation. When we talked about Jesse James robbing a train we would have

to change the equation so that he would be positioned on the train so that he could rob the train

before it reached the town. Time is not just an idea not just a made up plan it has been backed up

with complicated experiments that prove “time” and “time” again that it is true. With this being

said it is crazy to think that all year we have ignored the fact that time can change depending on

position of ourselves or the people on the worksheets. This theory helps to prove that time as

constant as we thought.

This dilemma effects or daily lives each and everyday because we are not as on time as

we think we are which cause many to be late. It is estimated that at .4c (speed of light in a

vacuum) time dilation starts to have a effect on a clock. As the object increase the amount of C

the greater time dilation starts to effect the object.t Aka as we get closer to the speed of light the

more time is affected by time dilation. This effects our daily life because everyday we inch a

little bit slower in time and each and everyday we inch a little bit faster in time. I believe that

these will cancel each other out in our lives so time dilation is actually irrelevant.
MLA Citations:

 hermes.ffn.ub.es/luisnavarro/nuevo_maletin/Einstein_1905_relativity.pdf+.

 Zavisa, John. “How Special Relativity Works.” HowStuffWorks Science,

HowStuffWorks, 8 Mar. 2018, science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/everyday-

myths/relativity10.htm.