What Is Space-Time? Einstein’s Theory of Time and Gravity Explained

The main points on what space-time is

• Einstein’s general theory of general relativity considers time similar to width, height and length. As such, time and space can be curved by gravity. This actually means that the weather is slower, the closer you are with an object with high gravitational traction.

• The compression of space-time and space-time differ from each other. The compression of space-time focuses on how the world seems smaller now than we have more access, not time in space.

• The space-time in relation to the earth depends on where you are in space. If you are near an event horizon, the weather will be very different from that on earth.

The days can sometimes feel like only hours when times are good, and the moments can barely spend in a dull day, but the passage of the earth around the sun has not changed easily measurable since humans began to use solar dials.

But about half a century after Big Ben was built in London, marking the center of average Greenwich, Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity has changed the way scientists think about time. Suddenly, as his theory suggests, the way people experience time could change according to their location. Humans are going through the spatial age more slowly than those who try to stay young on the surface of the planet.

“The general theory of relativity of Einstein requires that we can treat space and time as the same thing,” explains Lia Medeiros, astrophysicist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Leonard E. Parker Center for Gravitation, Cosmology and Astrophysics. “My whole career started because I thought the slowing weather was the craziest thing and I wanted to understand it.”

What is space-time?

Humans see life mainly in a three -dimensional world, and although we experience time – the fourth dimension – as we go, we tend to see it differently from the other three dimensions, which deal with space.

But Einstein’s theory of general relativity considers the time of width, height and length. As such, time and space can be curved by gravity.

“What we live as gravity is actually the curvature of space-time,” explains Medeiros.

This actually means that the weather is slower, the closer you are with an object with high gravitational traction. Medeiros uses an example to illustrate this-if a twin lives in the penthouse suite of a large skyscraper, and the other in the basement of the same building, the basement would age a little slower than the brother with high life, all the others.

Space-time compression: misunderstood

Regarding the compression of space-time, it is not exactly linked to the way in which space folds time, or to the theory of relativity of Einstein. The idea of compressing space-time has more to do with the way the world seems to be a smaller place in the modern era due to the progress of plane trips, the Internet and other things that make the world look like a smaller place.

Learn more:: The “Brownian movement” of space-time could spell the death of dark matter

How astronauts experience time differently

According to Einstein’s theory, there is nothing like a day in space.

“We cannot define a stationary observer in space,” explains Medeiros.

The way you live time compared to others on earth depends on where you are in space. To begin with, the astronauts of space do not seem that things seem to pass faster – they will always live an hour in the same way as they would do on earth. It’s just that when they come back to Earth, less time will probably be spent for you than for someone who has remained on the surface.

But for the sake of argument, let’s take an astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS). The space station is further away from the earth, which means that it undergoes a less gravitational traction. Compared to someone on earth, the astronaut was, in theory, to age a little faster than someone on the surface, because it is still much higher than the sequence of penthouse of a skyscraper.

But that doesn’t happen. In fact, astronauts who spend time orbit around the earth generally ages a little less than if they had stayed on the surface. It is mainly because the speed slows down time.

Thus, while astronauts accelerate around the planet, they actually move at a slower pace than people on the surface. The difference is not much, however. Some calculations show that an astronaut that spends six months at the ISS could age fraction of a second Less than someone on the surface of the earth, for example.

Time space vs earth time

Likewise, the way time flows in space compared to someone on earth depends on where you are in space. The most extreme example of this would be if you were in space near an event horizon – the point from which you could not escape the traction of a black hole.

For an outside observer, someone crossing this threshold seems to slow down so in time that he would be there forever. The unlucky explorer crossing the horizon of the event would likely experience a fairly steep end.

“The number of life I will live is actually quite short, but if you watch me fall into a black hole, you will really get bored,” explains Medeiros.

Likewise, you would feel time differently from someone else, depending on the speed at which you were going. In the extreme, someone who has managed to move at the speed of light would not essentially be age compared to someone who is more or less stationary. This is why photons do not age, says Medeiros – they move at the speed of light.

Find out more: Time will never stop: could there be an end for the future?

Article Sources

Our writers at Discovermagazine.com Use studies evaluated by high -quality peers and sources for our articles, and our publishers examine scientific precision and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:

Joshua Rapp Learn is a award -winning scientific writer based on DC. Expatan Albertan, he contributes to a number of scientific publications like National Geographic, New York Times, The Guardian, New Scientist, Hakai and others.