Warping Space-time with Time Dilation

July 29, 2022 (2y ago)

For ages, the idea of warping space-time has been popular in books and movies, such as A Wrinkle in Time and Interstellar. However unrealistic these may be, it is possible to (slightly) “warp” space-time with the concept of time dilation.

According to Britannica, time dilation is “the ‘slowing down’ of a clock as determined by an observer who is in relative motion with respect to that clock”.Time dilation affects us very slightly in everyday motion such as walking or riding a car, but much more significantly for speeds approaching the speed of light, such as that of a supersonic aircraft. According to Isaac Newton’s Theory of Special Relativity, space and time are “joint”. An object standing perfectly still travels exactly 24 hours through time, a person walking normally travels at a fraction of a millisecond less than that, and time stands still for anything moving at the speed of light.

The formula of time dilation is

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I will add this soon

(the difference between the elapsed time of the two events measured by either moving relative to each other located differently from gravitational mass or masses.) This being said, there is an inverse relationship between time and speed; the faster the speed, the slower the relative time. The fastest a spacecraft has traveled was when the Parker Solar Probe hit 364,660 mph (163017.606 m/s). If the probe had traveled for 10 years at that constant speed, it would have traveled 2.5 days further than a still object.

Although humans are still a long way off from creating a transporter that can travel even remotely close to the speed of light; who knows, at the current rate of technological and scientific innovation, within a couple decades, we may accomplish one of the greatest advancements in history.