The Space/time fabric

[ps139]

I was watching this Steven Hawking video and I thought of something. Is it possible that at some point in the history of the universe, "time" was "faster' or 'slower."

I ask this because if all matter was more compact right after the Big Bang, and Einstein's space/time thingy is true, wouldn't this affect how fast and how slow things are?

I do not really know how to properly ask this question, I hope someone can figure out what I mean.

 

[five]

Yes. Time is not constant and is affected by the amount of gravity in a given system. An example of this being observed is that atomic clocks run more quickly at higher altitudes than at sea level.

A fantastic reprocussion of this, of course, is the wackiness of black holes: For example, if myself and my good friend Ryan are standing outside the event horizon of a black hole and Ryan jumps in, he will never, ever reach the black hole from my point of view. Of course to him he will just fall straight in and die within a few seconds, and I imagine that if he were to look out from the black hole everything would become extremely bright.

If I (and the universe) were to live long enough to watch the black hole vapourize due to hawking radiation, it would be at the point of vapourization that he would appear to fall in for me. I wouldn't be able to see him, though, because the light coming from his body would have been redshifted too severely.

 

[ps139]

Wow... that is a crazy (but fun!) concept to wrap one's mind around!

 

[five]

Absolutely! I love astrophysics and all the new theories coming out. They really combine the best of physics, math, and philosophy. We're starting to make steps towards a much higher understanding of the universe and it's an extremely exciting time to be alive....it's just too bad I'm going to die eventually.

 

[RoboMastodon]

You can make time go slower by running albeit a very small amount (on the order of nanoseconds I believe).

 

[five]

You can make time go slower by running albeit a very small amount (on the order of nanoseconds I believe).

I doubt it would even be nanoseconds since going from 0km/h to 6 km/h is 5.5x10^-9 % of the speed of light.

 

[RigalCygnos]

Absolutely! I love astrophysics and all the new theories coming out. They really combine the best of physics, math, and philosophy. We're starting to make steps towards a much higher understanding of the universe and it's an extremely exciting time to be alive....it's just too bad I'm going to die eventually.

Perhaps "death" is a primitive superstition.
You realize that all existence is relative.

 

[billwald]

SOL applies to light in a vacuum, not a black hole. If SOl changes then the total amount of energy and/or mass in the universe must also change becaues e/m= c^2.

 

[Gracchus]

Spacetime is one thing, and dimensions can be space-like or time-like depending on your point of view.

 

[Locrian]

Ever since the space-time fabric was outsourced the quality of my merry travel through this multi-dimensional landscape has been reduced notably.

But holy cow, it sure is cheap.