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Special Relativity refers to the situation where an object is traveling at a constant velocity during a trip. We have long known that it is real and that it has the time dilation effects that Einstein had calculated for it. One of the first such experiments (around 1926) involved cosmic rays hitting molecules near the very top of the Earth's atmosphere at incredibly high impact force. The impact shatters the molecules into a lot of smaller pieces, some of which are mu-mesons or muons. We know in a laboratory how long a mu-meson exists before it then again disintegrates into yet other particles. All scientists knew that even at the speed of light, a mu-meson could not quite travel half a mile before disappearing as it decayed into other particles.
The proof of time dilation was that laboratories on the surface of the Earth, many miles below, were detecting those mu-mesons! That should have been impossible! A mu-meson was created maybe 50 miles high in the atmosphere, and it was known to not be able to even go half a mile before decaying. So there was NO chance whatever that any mu-meson could possibly get down to Earth-based labs to be detected. Time dilation was the ONLY possible explanation! From OUR point-of-view, the mu-meson's rate of time passage was far slower than ours, where it was able to make that distance before decaying. From the mu-meson's point-of-view, the thickness of the Earth's atmosphere was less than half a mile, so there is no problem of getting all the way through it before decaying (even though time seemed to pass at normal speed for the mu meson!)
But the far more interesting subject is that regarding General Relativity. Where Special Relativity dealt with CONSTANT VELOCITY, in other words, NO ACCELERATION, General Relativity is about the many situations where accelerations occur.
One specific example of Einstein became very well known. In a thought experiment, he proposed two elevators or two rocket ships. In the elevators, he had one elevator carriage out in deep space where there was no gravitation applying, while for the other elevator, he cut the cables supporting the elevator carriage which was in the Earth's gravitational field, where the elevator then fell downward with ever increasing velocity, but with constant acceleration. He noted that an occupant of that falling elevator would be floating in the elevator, along with everything else there (at least until it hit the bottom!) and that he would not be able to do any experiment to find any difference from if he was in the other elevator carriage floating free in deep space. Relativity. In the one case, there was no net acceleration because there were two effects, one of the Earth's gravitational field and the other from the acceleration of the free fall, which totaled exactly zero, just like is true in outer space. Einstein concluded that meant that an acceleration due to motion must be exactly interchangeable with an acceleration due to the gravity of a planet.
Einstein's rocket thought experiment showed a little more. His experiment was to have two identical rockets. One is sitting on a launch pad, being subjected to the gravitational field of the Earth. The other space ship would be in deep space, but accelerating due to ever-running rocket engines at exactly 32 feet per second per second. He noted here as well that the two occupants could never do any experiment to tell which situation was really their case. Again, an acceleration due to motion cannot be distinguished from the effects of a gravitational field.
As it turns out, the equations for General Relativity are astoundingly complex, and NO ONE has yet fully solved them! But virtually all Physicists agree that there MUST be some sort of effect regarding some modification of the rate of time passage which must exist in General Relativity.
Since no one has yet completely solved the set of ten equations of General Relativity, no one actually has ever known what that effect might actually be. There is a UNIVERSAL ASSUMPTION that a Time Dilation effect must apply. There is absolutely NO actual basis for making such an assumption! In fact, my research regarding analyzing the alleged Twins Paradox and in studying those equations of General Relativity, have established to me that the exact OPPOSITE is actually true! During acceleration or when within a gravitational field, that time passes FASTER than it would in deep space without acceleration.
Given these two preambles above, both of two extremely obvious experiments
seem to be needed to be done! The first is the more convincing,
I suspect!
The First Method
A small un-manned rocket would take
an accurate atomic clock to the Moon and gently plop it down on the
surface there. A radio link would be required to be able to compare
its readings with an identical clock here on Earth. That's it!
The gravitational field of the Moon is about 1/6 that of Earth. Instead of the 32 ft/sec2 or 9.8 m/sec2 that we experience on Earth, on the surface of the Moon, it is instead about 5 ft/sec2 or 1.6 m/sec2.
In my efforts at solving Einstein's General Relativity equations, I find results which suggest that the rate of time passage on the Moon will be MEASURABLY different than here on Earth. A measurable fraction of a second slower per year.
If an atomic clock placed on the Moon confirms that, it would confirm a basic aspect of General Relativity which has never before been experimentally confirmed, and it would also create far larger philosophical questions in the process. We normally want to believe that time passes at a specific rate. But Einstein seemed to be implying that on ANY different planet, time would pass at a DIFFERENT rate!
Granted that the differences would not be noticeable or would ever interfere in any experiments. They appear to be extremely minimal for any acceleration that we humans could possibly cause, or due to any gravitational field which we might be able to survive!
But the simple FACT that time, as measured here on Earth, is likely to be DIFFERENT than the passage of time on other planets or moons or in outer space, suggests that a basic assumption in Astrophysics might be incorrect.
My calculations, based on Einstein's set of ten equations, suggest that on the Earth's surface, time should pass very slightly FASTER than it does in open space, by a Time Compression factor of approximately 1.000 000 003 5
On the Moon, that Time Compression factor should be 1.000 000 001 1
The two IDENTICAL atomic clocks therefore would run at DIFFERENT speeds (but only really small differences!) Of course, the timing signal from the Moon would have to be corrected for the exact distance the Moon was at that instant, but that is easy!
I am not sure that this tiny difference would ever be useful or important for any experiment on Earth. But see that if the Moon and Earth clocks were exactly synchronized on January first of some year, then after an entire year (of about 31 million seconds), the two clocks should be different by about 0.076 second! In Physics, that is a HUGE difference!
Whether communication links between two clocks that far apart could ever be sufficient to detect such tiny fluctuations where the clocks gain and lose such a tiny amount of time to each other each day, is uncertain. But if such a communication link could be arranged, that should provide a second confirmation of the time effects of General Relativity.
This effect certainly might be very significant near white dwarves or other extremely dense objects. Say that the gravitation there was 150,000 times what it is here (if that is possible), and that the object was one kilometer in diameter. My calculations indicate that time should pass there at 1.4 times the rate that we measure it passing. Say that the gravitation there was 150,000,000 times what it is here (if that is possible), and that the object was one kilometer in diameter. My calculations indicate that time should pass there at 45 times the rate that we measure it passing.
Such a situation might change a lot of attitudes regarding what is happening in such bizarre environments. If we now believe that material is orbiting at virtually the speed of light, but if time was actually passing there at 45 times as fast as we know, then the ACTUAL velocity there may only be 1/45th of what we think it is!
Additionally, for Pulsars and Quasars and other objects which seem to us to be generating impossible amounts of radiation, this might provide an interesting new insight! If light from 45 actual seconds of radiation, all arrives here during one second, we would see it to be 45 times as BRIGHT as it actually is!
Additionally, we believe that some such objects are rotating at astounding rates. If time is passing there at 45 times what we believe, then the rotation rate would only be 1/45th of what we now think it is, and in many cases, that might put the object back into being less exotic than has been believed.
There are other characteristics that we see in extremely distant objects which might be explained more logically than previous explanations.
So either of these experiments (on the Moon or on the Earth) is needed to demonstrate that GR has Time Compression rather than Time Dilation, that time passes MORE QUICKLY here on Earth than it does in deep space. The experiment(s) would also show if my calculations are accurate or not! (No one else has ever even tried to GUESS at how fast their time dilation occurred during acceleration! I even derived an equation to give that Time Compression ratio for any situation!)
There is even the possibility that an aspect in the equations which was not absolutely clear to me might cause even GREATER effects on the Moon and the Earth than calculated above. It would certainly make experimentally confirming it far easier if that is the case!
C Johnson, Physicist, Physics Degree from Univ of Chicago