can time actually slow down?

[Reaper79]

Time to Re-evaluate my perception of time (pun intended)

 

Seriously though, thanks to all the posters who helped me on this thread, what seemed like mathematical wizardry at first is now a firm grip on relativity and even though it took me a while to get here, I wouldn't of gotten here without these people who take time out of their day to help others.

 

So Thank you all, I consider this topic closed, but feel free to continue the discussion without me.

[Ivanov2000]

Imagine moving at a constant speed, say 100mps, in a fixed direction. You start at the origin on a 3d graph, and take a picture of that graph once per second. Each shows you 100m further from the origin. Your possible position would be somewhere on a 100m radius, 200m, etc...

 

Ok, now flatten your 3d space onto the x/y plane, and use the z-axis for time, and your 'speed' is c.

 

So now if at rest in space, you will be moving at full 'speed' through time. If you move though space, you will not move as fast through time, as some of your motion is through space. If you move full speed though space, your motion through time is 0.

 

Ok, so we talking a hemisphere now as only forward motion through time is allowed, and I don't think it would actually be spherical neither, but you get the idea. In space time, nothing is actually at rest, everything moves at c, sorta.

What I want to know is why only forward in time, and why the speed limit is c.

 

Something to do with an expanding universe, I suspect.

[swansont]

Imagine moving at a constant speed, say 100mps, in a fixed direction. You start at the origin on a 3d graph, and take a picture of that graph once per second. Each shows you 100m further from the origin. Your possible position would be somewhere on a 100m radius, 200m, etc...

 

Ok, now flatten your 3d space onto the x/y plane, and use the z-axis for time, and your 'speed' is c.

 

So now if at rest in space, you will be moving at full 'speed' through time. If you move though space, you will not move as fast through time, as some of your motion is through space. If you move full speed though space, your motion through time is 0.

 

Ok, so we talking a hemisphere now as only forward motion through time is allowed, and I don't think it would actually be spherical neither, but you get the idea. In space time, nothing is actually at rest, everything moves at c, sorta.What I want to know is why only forward in time, and why the speed limit is c.

 

Something to do with an expanding universe, I suspect.

That's how you can view the 4-velocity, and it has nothing to do with expansion. Your speed is c, so the larger your spatial velocity, the smaller the time component is.

[Ivanov2000]

Yes, just trying to make the 'can time actually slow down' thing more palatable to everyday experience.

 

This: Something to do with an expanding universe, I suspect.

 

Belongs to: What I want to know is why only forward in time, and why the speed limit is c.

 

...not the rest. It was actually a separate post, but the software joined them together.