There are a lot of pasoti-ites far brighter than me, so can you explain something I can’t get my head around.
We all learned at school Einstein’s principle contained within his theory of relativity that the faster you travel, so time slows down. So, if I travel at the speed of light to some distant constellation and return when you are 12 months older, I may have aged by only 6 months or less. I’ve read several explanations of the cause, including Hawkins’ book, but frankly I still don’t understand it.
Until now my ignorance didn’t bother me. That is until 2 weeks ago when I read that because the satellites which transmit our TV signals and Satnav are travelling through space faster than we are, then time for these satellites is running slower, and constant fine tuning is therefore required to keep the satellite on exactly our clock and make sure you don’t get your satnav direction to turn right 20 seconds after you needed it.
Here’s my question. If I sit in my back garden on a cloudless night I can watch a satellite pass over in, say, 3 minutes, horizon to horizon. However I now know it’s doing that exact journey in 2.99999etc minutes. So how can the time I spent watching it be different from the time it spent doing it, whilst I was watching it?
We all learned at school Einstein’s principle contained within his theory of relativity that the faster you travel, so time slows down. So, if I travel at the speed of light to some distant constellation and return when you are 12 months older, I may have aged by only 6 months or less. I’ve read several explanations of the cause, including Hawkins’ book, but frankly I still don’t understand it.
Until now my ignorance didn’t bother me. That is until 2 weeks ago when I read that because the satellites which transmit our TV signals and Satnav are travelling through space faster than we are, then time for these satellites is running slower, and constant fine tuning is therefore required to keep the satellite on exactly our clock and make sure you don’t get your satnav direction to turn right 20 seconds after you needed it.
Here’s my question. If I sit in my back garden on a cloudless night I can watch a satellite pass over in, say, 3 minutes, horizon to horizon. However I now know it’s doing that exact journey in 2.99999etc minutes. So how can the time I spent watching it be different from the time it spent doing it, whilst I was watching it?