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Einstein Pedometer App Measures Relative Time Gain
cylonlover writes "Among other things, Einstein's theory of special relativity says that as an object's velocity increases, time as experienced by the object will slow down when compared to another object traveling at a lower velocity. This means that a 'relatively' short round trip on a space ship traveling at close to the speed of light would see you arrive home having aged less than those back on Earth. While the greater the velocities involved, the greater the effect, the theory applies to all relative movement. Now there's an iPhone app that will let you know just how many extra nanoseconds you've gained by getting moving as opposed to sitting on your rear end."
To beat you guys to first post. Bah!
It doesn't matter much how the time in your frame of reference relates to times of "stationary" observers; it's still the same amount of time for you.
Of course, the gain (and much larger than nanoseconds) might be there vs. just sitting on your rear end. But it depends greatly on the type of movement, for example whether it involves regular exercise.
One that hath name thou can not otter
Wouldn't this "gain" depend on which direction you're walking - along with the rotation of the earth, or against it?
Or if you're comparing to non-earthly reference points - along with the revolution around the sun & galaxy or against them?
It's actually a pedantometer.
Think of it this way: Two guys have a deadline in an hour. Guy #1 sits at his desk and does nothing. Guy #2 zips around at a high velocity and returns to meet guy #1. Both guys check their watch, guy #1 notes an hour has past, while guy #2 notes that half an hour has past. Although guy #2 has aged less, he actually had less time to work to meet the deadline. In the spirit of the original post, guy #2 has lost time instead of gained it.
Ok, the App is very minimal, just tells you how much time you've gained(?) compared to a "stationary" observer.
The info panel allows you to put in your birth date. Presumably this is to show you how much time you've added to your life? (It also allows you to turn on multi-tasking for the app so I guess it can constantly determine how much time you've saved).
I wish it would give a little more info (ideally a running graph showing time slowing down as you're speeding up). It says it uses GPS but I'm assuming it isn't calculating how much time is speeding up if you climb up some stairs (out of the gravity well). For that matter I assume it isn't taking into account acceleration (note to physicists: does non-gravity acceleration cause time dilation?).
Still it is free, and makes me feel very very very slightly younger!
That would be a cool idea for an Adidas or Nike ad.
Einstein relativity theory: when you are moving, the time of the world around you goes faster and your time is slower. The faster you go, the longer you think, the longer you live. The world turns into a blaze of events, unimportant things are even more insignificant... and everyone else sees you resilient and stoic.
Or some crap like that...
I rarely respond to comments. Also, don't ask for clarifications: a brain and Google are faster, believe me!
If you climb up a mountain you'll be higher up in the gravity well and time will run faster than for people down below. The app should be integrated with GPS readings to take that into account.
Does this mean that the faster I run my CPU, the longer it will last?
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
The time one lives on this planet is relative to measurements made by other people and by other devices. Your watch on your own wrist is probably the most accurate personal time you can get, but you have to adjust it based on other clocks around you to remain in sync with the rest of the world. Even more so, computers and phones now regularly ping a clock server to get an updated time automatically, and that server is somewhere else, being stationary. Time on the Earth is measured in terms of the velocity of the planet's orbit and rotation, but not in terms of your personal velocity relative to the sun or earth itself. The earth rotates and orbits at a specific velocity. If you move, your velocity relative the sun is different than the planet itself.
However, by moving, based on the theory of relativity, you are gaining a fraction of a fraction of a second by moving faster than the world around you. The clock is a philosophical exercise exploring relativity, and it's not like you'll gain 200 relative years by constantly walking or running anywhere, but it's fun to observe relativity in action. The "gain vs loss" here is that 1 second for you is still 1 second, but if you were say running, 1 second for you is, for example, 1.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 seconds for everyone you pass that are standing still. So you gain that fraction of a second relative to the world around you, and thus travel into the future a little faster than others.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
If motion is relative, how does the universe know which of us is moving in the near-light-speed vehicle so that person's clock runs slower than the stay-at-home's? We're both moving relative to each other.
Measuring would just a tad more difficult...
Anything that gives anyone motivation to perform some kind of exercise is good. This is one idea, achievements is another. Geocaching provides a good system for achievements for physical activity, and nerds often find themselves enjoying it (in my experience anyway. I was introduced by a nerd, have introduced several nerds and met a whole lot of nerds doing it.). A third is AR-based games. The "time gain" that general relativity supposedly gives is just as good a carrot as anything else - the real gain is health.
Next stop: add leap nano-seconds to NTP.
Fandroids hate facts.
There is at least one hobbyist that has measured it by taking a surplus rubidium oscillator up mt. Rainier. "It was the best extra 22 nanoseconds I've ever spent with the kids,"
Sure. You can just sit on your lazy ass and fly very fast to get some extra time. But do not forget you also gain some extra MASS. :-)
If enithin kan gow rong it whil. (Murfey)
How many plane trips would I have to take to go backwards in time all the way to the 70's?
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
So if I walk to the shop, which for the sake of argument is with the direction of spin of the earth, ie I am moving faster than it, does it then follow that on the walk home where I would be going in the opposite direction of the spin and thusly slower that the rest of the world would 'catch up' to me?
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
If everything is relative, wouldn't we need to know what is relevant? The earth rotates and revolves around the sun while the sun revolves around the galaxy while the galaxy moves through the universe. That is a lot of movement. Relative to the center of the universe, the one who moves fastest might be the one who sits still. More importantly, the relative difference in momentum between any two of us might be infinitesimal when compared to the whole. Nanoseconds might seem like millennia by comparison. But I know, it is all relatively unimportant when selling an iPhone app. What's really important is what's cool. This app will definitely get someone laid. Too bad all that movement will probably make it seem too short.
So in reality the Flash should be relatively (pun intentional) immortal compared to the rest of us.
To really bend you bonnet out of shape, so while he is vibrating so fast as to go back in time, that would be relativistically speaking the rest of the world would be moving forward in time at a faster rate.
Also
The Flash would kick Superman's ass in a race... :)
That would help warn me when an apparently green traffic signal was actually red to a stationary observer. Talk about savings. This beats extra nanoseconds by a . . . uh . . . it beats them!
I am not a crackpot.
If you could walk fast enough to make a difference, your body would wear out real fast.
Sure they have measured time differences in atomic clocks that have traveled on jet planes, but imagine the stress on your joints and bones if you could walk at 600mph, not to mention the likelyhood of having an accident (most people can barely cope with car driving speed in terms of reaction abilty..
Somebody mentioned (DC comics) The Flash. How come he doesn't burn up from the heat of air resistance?
Pedobear would approve this app.
If you post as an AC, don't expect me to spend a mod point on you.
It seems like it would need some GPS integration or else all that running in place would calculate extra nanoseconds you don't deserve.
Speaking of "badly named," pedometer sounds like something made up on 4chan to rate the age of children in image posts.
Thats because of 4chan's poor grasp of English.
I laugh every time some one calls me a pedo, I tell them my foot fetish has nothing to do with the discussion.
pedophile - foot fetish
paedophile - kid fetish
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Am i the first to question whether this includes the earth rotation?
Besides, when talking about general relativity and moving, can't we determine the exact a centre of our universe by finding the spot (mass points excluded) that (relatively speaking) has the greatest time-dialation potential for any trip in the vacuum of space?
Hivemind harvest in progress..