Marcus Chown explores the quantum physics of ageing

Marcus Chown, the author of Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You and the New Scientist's Cosmology Correspondent explains why you age more quickly at the top of a building than the bottom. Produced by Jonathan Carter.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Marcus
• Chown
• Ageing
• Quantum
• Theory
• Relativity
• New
• Scientist
• Book
• Physics
• Faber

[azdgariarada]

@JBeezie428 You're welcome.

I hope it was clear enough. It's hard to respond with enough detail when limited by the 500 character response size on Youtube.

Unless you're willing to write several posts in rapid succession. :-P

[JBeezie428]

@azdgariarada thank you for that clear answer. I just got done a religious debate with a fundamentalist. It is nice to see good evidence and logical arguments used to support a point!

[azdgariarada]

@JBeezie428 The amount that time slows down, due to going very fast while in orbit, is greater than the amount that time speeds up by being farther from the center of the Earth. So the end result is you age more slowly. But we're still talking on the order of tiny tiny fractions of a single second.

To get really noticeable time differences, we'd need to go MUCH closer to the speed of light, like 50.0% c. The fastest ever man made object went about 0.024% c.

[azdgariarada]

@JBeezie428 You have to factor in velocity. You're correct, in space you age a little quicker than you do on Earth's surface. However, the cumulative effect depends on where you are, and how fast you're moving. Time moves more slowly as you approach the speed of light, even if you're not close to a strong gravity source.

To stay above the surface, you have to orbit. In geostationary orbit, moving at 6,876 mph, you age more slowly than a person standing still on the surface of the Earth.

[JBeezie428]

I am confused. So time moves faster with less gravity. So in outer-space , wouldn't you age quicker? I am sure this is incorrect b/c of this video, but I just want some clarity. Why, if when time moves faster (like out in space), do we age age slower? This seems backwards to me. Any clarity to be had?

[RonnocRetep]

If you were in the centre of the earth there would be less gravitational pull on you than on the top of that building. At the top of the building you have the whole earth pulling on you. If you were at the centre you would be pulled by a surrounding force keeping you floating. Wouls the strongest gravitational point of the earth not be just on the surface at any point on the sphere

[spartacandream]

you also age slower the faster you go, as you approach the speed of light. I wonder if there is a correlation between the two?

[jacezz123]

0.52, a black haawl. lol