# Tagged Questions

Time is defined operationally to be that which is measured by clocks. The SI unit of time is the second, which is defined to be

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82 views

### How precisely can we date the recombination?

The early universe was hot and opaque. Once it cooled enough, protons and electrons were able to form hydrogen atoms. This made the universe transparent, and was known as recombination. We can see the ...
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120 views

### How to calculate the amount of night time during a flight?

I have been asked to find a way to calculate the amount of time that a flight takes during night time. So far, I have the departure latitude and longitude and the time of takeoff, the arrival ...
4answers
483 views

### How to describe a well defined “zero moment” in time

Suppose you have to specify the moment in time when a given event occurred, a "zero time". The record must be accurate to the minute, and be obtainable even after thousands of years. All the measures ...
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85 views

### How much time has passed for Voyager I since it left the Earth, 34 years ago?

34 years have passed since Voyager I took off and it's just crossing the solar system, being approximately at 16.4 light-hours away. How much time have passed for itself, though?
2answers
182 views

### Will observers moving on a sphere experience time dilation?

A single source of light exists at a fixed point in space relative to two observers. The two observers move on the surface of a shell with a fixed radius with the light source at its centre. They move ...
2answers
110 views

### Calculating Average Velocity

I understand that the concept of an average of a data list means finding a certain value 'x', which ensures that the sum of the deviations of the numbers on the left of 'x' and on the right of 'x' ...
1answer
92 views

### How can we know the time frames for events in the early universe?

I just finished watching Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking (2010). Specifically the third episode titled 'The Story of Everything.' In the episode Hawking is explaining the mainstream theories ...
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128 views

### When calculating the local apparent sidereal time, which time scale should I use?

UT1, UTC, TAI, TDB, or what? I need to determine the time difference between a given observation and the epoch from which certain constants apply. I typically work with the J2000.0 epoch. This is to ...
1answer
286 views

### Laser Coherence Length/Time

Scenario: Imagine a collimated beam of white light falling on one refracting face of a prism. Let the light emerging from the second face be focused by a lens onto a screen. Suppose there is linear ...
2answers
159 views

### When moving fast Time slows down Vs speeds up

I was watching an old cartoon movie where a scientist makes a gadget, which when bound on the wrist, freezes the movement of the whole world. So, that one may do 100s of things in a single second. ...
3answers
264 views

### Energy-time uncertainty and pair creation

Usually, the energy-time analogue of the position-momentum uncertainty relation is quoted as $\Delta E \Delta t \geq \frac{h}{4 \pi}$. This has interpretational issues and such. But, with a suitable ...
1answer
122 views

### Is time the rate at which one moves through space

I'll start out with the cliche attempt in a protective shield of my dignity. I am a young highschool kid just eager to learn and understand. If I'm way off or this is already a known idea, or maybe ...
1answer
79 views

### What is the difference between “at all times” and “at any particular time”?

Morrison writes in "Morrison, Michael A. : Understanding quantum physics : a user's manual" $|\Psi(x,t)|^2 \xrightarrow[x\rightarrow\pm \infty ]{} 0$ at all times t [bound state] \$ ...
1answer
276 views

### What is actually meant by 'sun set' and 'sun rise' times, when taking into account the mirage due to light bending in the atmosphere

I’ve heard from the likes of Brian Cox that what we see of the sun during a sunset and sun rise is actually the mirage of the sun. The Sun has actually set/risen and we see it due to the way light is ...
0answers
79 views

### General physics question involving Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

Question: An unstable particle produced in a high-energy collision is measured to have an energy of $483\ \mathrm{MeV}$ and an uncertainty in energy of $84\ \mathrm{keV}$. Use the Heisenberg ...
0answers
76 views

### Do particles travel backward and forward in time? [duplicate]

All these classical ideas are pointless and obsolete today, because in quantum mechanics, the particles are completely different objects, defined by quantum motion of fields, not by the location of ...
0answers
50 views

### Wormholes and the illusion of time?

I was watching a video on Youtube by Brian Greene, "the illusion of time."http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-u1aaltiq4 In that video, he introduces to me the idea of a "brane," or a slice of the ...
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74 views

### “Time” by epistemic subdivision of a closed system [closed]

There is the idea that there is no time in a completely closed (thus unobservable) system. Within such a system, a subsystem may be imagined to be split off by some virtual boundary. However, one ...
1answer
464 views

### Relation between comoving distance and conformal time?

In cosmology, we have two quantities and I want to understand the physical relation between these two : $\chi = \int_{t_e}^{t_0}c\frac{dt'}{a(t')}$ : the comoving distance with $t_e$ the time at ...
1answer
205 views

### Two identical rockets, time dilation, and possible weirdness [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Why isn't the symmetric twin paradox a paradox? Suppose there are two identical rockets, each carrying one of two identical clocks and one of two identical ...
0answers
89 views

### Confusion with infinity and time [closed]

I have some confusion between with resolving the following situation. I know that no measurable quantity can have a value of infinity. For example, I just wrote something out, but clearly this ...
0answers
2k views

### What's the relationship between mass and time? [closed]

[This question has arisen from a wish to understand an end-of-universe scenario: heat death] Are time and mass intrinsically linked? If so, does time "run slower" (whatever that may mean) in a ...
2answers
141 views

### What's the relationship between quantum entanglement and the relativity of time?

Apologies in advance for what may be a stupid question from a layman. In reading recently about quantum entanglement, I understood there to be a direct link between entangled particles, even at ...
4answers
164 views

### Bear with me, this is a stupid question. Talking on the phone and time

So a few days ago I noticed (im sure we all just know this) that when talking on the phone you receive the messages a few seconds after it is said by the sender. So person A says "hello" to person B. ...
2answers
171 views

### Is there a device that could measure the speed of time?

Is there (or can there be) a device that could measure the speed and acceleration of time?
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160 views

### Imaginary time and string theory

Is imaginary time an extra dimension? In other words, are time and imaginary time considered two separate dimensions? If so, does imaginary time appear (as a separate dimension) in string theory (thus ...
1answer
103 views

### What is the maximum time dilation between two objects, if one is standing still and the other is moving at $c$?

What is the maximum ratio in the rate of change in time in reference to object $A$ which is standing still and object $B$ which is moving at the speed of light?
3answers
148 views

### Time slowing down problem

When someone moves, time slows down for him. Let, a man standing still and another moving very very very fast, this happens for an hour (as measured by the standing man). Time has moved slower for the ...
2answers
264 views

### What isotope has the shortest half life?

Question: What isotope has the shortest half life?
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### Confusion about time shift in special relativity

I have never really found a way to comfortably comprehend the idea of time shift even though I know its not the hard part of relativity theory. In that light, can someone point out what is wrong or ...
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172 views

### Does the Earth's revolution around the Sun affect radioactive decay?

Premises: The radioactivity is either hastened or slowed inside a fast moving aircraft. Speed of fastest aircraft: 3,529.6 km/h. The earth's revolution is: 107278.87 km/h. The earth's ...
2answers
295 views

### Is it true looking at an object from a great distance with a telescope will show the past version of the object?

Once again from my son's workbook. It discussed standing on a planet 65 million light years away from Earth, with an extremely powerful telescope pointed at Earth. It claimed that then you could see ...
1answer
52 views

### Time Dilation in relation to Acceleration

What I am looking for is a layman's explanation on the equations required to work out Time Dilation at high speeds including acceleration and deceleration of velocity. Or I would greatly appreciate it ...
1answer
147 views

### The real meaning of time dilation

Is this true or false: If A and B have clocks and are traveling at relative velocity to each other, then to B it APPEARS that A's clock moving slower, but A sees his own clock moving at normal speed. ...
1answer
134 views

### Does photon possesses no time to cover any arbitrary distance?

Photon travel 8 minutes (with speed $c$) from the sun to reach the earth. Any particle (or space-ship) with velocity $0.99 c$ covers the same distance (93 millions km) within less than 2 minutes ...
1answer
133 views

### Approximate Time Dilation at Rocket Speeds

How do you calculate the time dilation effect experienced by a traveler traveling at a relatively low speed? Specifically, how much time dilation would a traveller moving at $v=0.0007 c$ (speed of ...
2answers
78 views

### Resources for current thought on time/spacetime?

Are any of the big-name physicists associated with the time in the same way that Hawking and Penrose are associated with black holes? I'm interested in some good books that focus on the topic.
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181 views

### Is relativistic motion equivalent to fluctuating gravitational fields?

The theory of relativity makes very precise predictions about how an object's motion through space-time affects the passage of time for both the object and observers in other frames of reference. I ...
1answer
103 views

### Did space and time exist before the Big Bang? [duplicate]

I accept the Big Bang theory. What I can't understand is how there can be a where or when to the Big Bang if space time did not exist prior to it. Did space and time exist prior to the Big Bang?
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83 views

### Does our local time speed up as the Universe expands?

Starting from a simplified radial Freidman Walker metric we have $$ds^2 = -c^2 dt^2 + a(t)^2 dr^2$$ How does one measure one's proper time operationally? One times a light beam along an element of ...
1answer
92 views

### Deriving infinitesimal time dilation for arbitrary motion from Lorentz transformations

I'm trying to derive the infinitesimal time dilation relation $dt = \gamma d\tau$, where $\tau$ is the proper time, $t$ the coordinate time, and $\gamma = (1-v(t)^2/c^2)^{-1/2}$ the time dependent ...
4answers
197 views

### The bigger the mass, the more time slows down. Why is this?

If I were to stand by a pyramid, which weighs about 20 million tons, I would slow down by a trillion million million million of second. Don't know if that's exactly right, but you get the point. Also, ...
1answer
114 views

### Time Contraction

This is my first time posting on this site. I am a computer programmer that stumbled across a physics text book and have a question on special relativity. So firstly, I understand that there is no ...
1answer
2k views

### Finding deceleration and velocity using distance and time

A car is moving down a street with no brakes or gas. The car is slowing due to wind resistance and the effect of friction. The road is flat and straight. The only data I have are timings taken at 100m ...
1answer
100 views

### Red shift and time distortion

Superman throws a light emitting object away from himself fast enough to notice a red-shift. The object passes through a region in which time runs more slowly. From Superman's perspective, does the ...
1answer
183 views

### If you removed every particle from space…? [closed]

I'm trying to find something Einstein (I think) said about time...It was something like.. "If you removed every particle from space and were left with only one pocket watch (clock, timepiece?), time ...
0answers
38 views

### Time ordering and Fermions

Having time ordering operator for fermions, should it reverse sign if it swaps operators with opposite spin variable? In other words should $T[c_{t_1,\uparrow}c_{t_2,\downarrow}^\dagger]$ return ...
0answers
27 views

### What is the formula for calculating the length of any given day (sunrise to sunset)? [duplicate]

In a specific date what law gives us perfect measurements and how will we measure if latitude is given?
0answers
34 views

### Why there is no operator for time in QM? [duplicate]

Is there one central reason why there is no "Time" operator in QM? I know this question has been asked before, but I thought I would try to stimulate some fresh thinking.
0answers
36 views

### Can a black hole actually grow, from the point of view of a distant observer? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Black hole formation as seen by a distant observer I've read in several places that from the PoV of a distant observer it will take an infinite amount of time for new ...
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