My question is, can Time Dilation affect things like automobiles? even if only moving at speeds of say, 65mph?

(even if its only effected by a few seconds difference?)

 

thanks

Yes, but the effect will be incredibly tiny. Say you are in your car going 65mph (100km/h) I will see your clock going about 99.9999999999999% the speed of mine. (About 15 9's- my (expensive) calculator couldn't even display the dilation factor- I had to do an expansion)

 

I believe so far, the lowest speed at which SR time dilation has been observed is about the speed of sound.

Ah, I see.

But would one see results after extended periods of time?

Say, driving for 12 hours or so, at 65mph?

 

thanks

Well, you can figure it out easily. If you drive 12 hours at 65mph, then I think that you have been driving for 12hours*0.99999999999999

The difference is much much less than 1 second.

Swansont has a blog post on this very issue:

 

http://blogs.scienceforums.net/swansont/archives/6

ah great, thanks very much

Relativity is everywhere. You can't really 'feel' it because of very slow velocities that happen in our everyday life. The effects of relativity can really be felt only when approaching the speed of light. But they do happen in normal life too, even in 65mph, it's just that they're too small to be noticed. Although they can be calculated. If you want to calculate that yourself, just speak up and we'll give you the equations.

 

Cheers,

Shade

The effects of relativity can really be felt only when approaching the speed of light. But they do happen in normal life too, even in 65mph, it's just that they're too small to be noticed.

 

It's not that the effects are too small, it's that you don't have the right instrumentation, as iNow's link (to me) points out.

The right instrumentation for what? To measure it? Aren't equations well enough for that?

darkshade:

There are two parts to physics: Experiment and Theory. Both are equally important.

 

Anyway, to me at least, the effect being too small to measure and not having the right equipment to measure an effect are essentially the same thing. Though maybe there is a subtle difference.

To affect time you must first affect the energy within the mass. Since mass is made up of energy(molecules>atoms>energy) you must first slow the particle interactions or speed them up. By making an object move faster you are not adding mass itself but imposing more of a force on the energy within that mass thus gaining the same consequences of added gravitation effects. Its not the adding of mass its an adding of force.