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The concept of time
After having a look at the profiles, there seem to be a lot of knowledgeable senior members present in here on this forum. :)
The concept of time as a 4th dimension has been confusing me since I was born, lol.
I have seen many Discovery shows on YouTube where they say time is personal, not universal. Time runs at different rates for different people. There's no past, present and future. All exist simulteneuosly, means the future, present and past are all 'happening' at the same time. It's just we who have created the concept of past, present and future and the concept of 'beginning' and 'ending'.
In those videos, they had nicely explained the concept of time using a very simple example.
Case 1: You are moving towards absolute North direction @ 50 kmph. In this case, the rate at which you move towards the north is 50 kmph.
Case 2: You are moving north-west @ 50 kmph. In this case, the rate at which you are moving towards absolute north is less than 50 kmph since some of your speed has been 'diverted' towards west direction.
In a similar way, when an object is moving towards you, the rate of the object's time flow will appear slower to you with respect to that of your own and vice-versa.
They said that a part of that object's time flow is 'diverted' towards its motion, and hence the result.
Another example they gave is that, if I am sitting at one place and you are coming towards me (ie. you are in motion w.r.t to me), I am going to see things slow down for you, everything will appear to happen in slow motion to me. They said this effect is real but is so miniscule, that it can't be noticed (reason being our relatively slow rate of motion in everyday life, 500 kmph? That's nothing compared to light speed)
I find it impossible to even imagine or understand this concept of diversion of time due to motion.
I expect some mature answers from our respected senior members. I remember, there's someone who learns astronomy (maybe Mrs. Archer? -- no it's someone else...), I don't remember, so am excited for the responses.
Last edited by nilank; 24 Mar 2013 at 11:44.