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Can Time Slow Down?
Ponca City, We Love You writes "Does time slow down when you are in a traffic accident or other life threatening crisis like Neo dodging bullets in slow-motion in The Matrix? To find out, researchers developed a perceptual chronometer where numbers flickered on the screen of a watch-like unit. The scientists adjusted the speed at which the numbers flickered until it was too fast for the subjects to see. Then subjects were put in a Suspended Catch Air Device, a controlled free-fall system in which 'divers' are dropped backwards off a platform 150 feet up and land safely in a net. Subjects were asked to read the numbers on the perceptual chronometer as they fell [video]. The bottom line: While subjects could read numbers presented at normal speeds during the free-fall, they could not read them at faster-than-normal speeds. 'We discovered that people are not like Neo in The Matrix,' Eagleman said. 'The answer to the paradox is that time estimation and memory are intertwined: the volunteers merely thought the fall took a longer time in retrospect'."
Thank the ancient Babylonians, who used a base 60 number system. They came up with the concept of 60 seconds to a minute, 60 minutes to an hour, 24 hours to a day.
> What would be the problem with metric time for example?
You don't say what you mean by "metric" time, but my guess is that you're asking about using a temporal analog of the current systems of linear distance, weight, volume, etc.
If that's what you mean, the problem with that is that our current time system doesn't just measure one thing. It tries to measure the rotation of the earth in one day, and then it tries to measure the time it takes to make a trip around the sun. Even if we throw out the half-assed attempt to cram the lunar cycle into the mix, we still have two values whose quotient is not an integer. That means that any metric time system is going to need to go through the same periodic adjustments that our current system goes through.
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If I read the summary correctly, they have shown (to a limited extent) that EVEN our perception of time does NOT change during such events. What they concluded therefore is that our MEMORY is more to blame for compositing (AFTER the fact) an apparent slowdown or speedup of time during the event.
FTA:
'The answer to the paradox is that time estimation and memory are intertwined: the volunteers merely thought the fall took a longer time in retrospect'." [emphasis mine]So, the posters so far have been stating the obvious, but seem to have missed this point. The researchers were trying to TEST the long-held conventional belief that our perceptions do slow down or speed up during certain special events. They seem to have come up with a startling result - our perceptions stay pretty much the same, our later MEMORIES seem to be edited after the fact to make it seem that we perceived time differently during the event. Brains are so devious. *cackle* *rubs hands in glee*
I don't know about that, but I know they had an issue with a heliocentric universe.
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the only way for time to slow down is to travel faster than the speed of light
Whoops -- a simple mistake but a big one (like saying that you have to factor prime numbers to break encryption). No, all travel at any speed causes time dilation. The effect simply isn't significant unless you're travelling at a significant fraction of the speed of light.
Of course, to be pedantic it's all relative (and that's where the equations get wacky).
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I find that hard to believe given that the Bible also states the world to be round. Maybe you're thinking about heliocentricity?
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Ah, but the mass of the plane also increases as speed increases. At a mere 0.99999999999999999999c, the relativistic mass of a 300,000 kg 747-400 exceeds the mass of the earth. So the plane doesn't crash into earth; earth crashes into the plane.
Actually? No. Galileo met resistance from the church because of his belief in a heliocentric model, but he was not arrested for it. Far from it, in fact. He was a good friend of the Pope and had his ideas seriously considered for a time. Eventually he was instructed by the Pope to keep his writings in the theoretical realm and to present both sides of the argument.
Where Galileo eventually tripped up was that he used the character of Simplicus to represent the Pope's opinions in his writings, effectively calling the Pope a simpleton and fool. This didn't go over very well with the Vatican and he stood trial for heresy. His sentence was actually one of imprisonment, but (perhaps as a last gesture from a former friend) his sentence was reduced to house arrest.
As much as I disagree with the Catholic Church's actions both past and present, I do wish that people would stop using Galileo's arrest as an example unless they well and truly understand the history behind the affair.
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