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By B. Justin Scholfield
What is the nature of Time?
• Time is used to relate
events
• We define two actions
as simultaneous
when we see the two
actions at the same
time
Special & General Relativity
Special Relativity
This is the boost matrix, or
Lorentz tensor.
It describes the translation of
position and time to another
frame moving at speed v
along one axis
Its called special relativity because it can’t handle acceleration that well.
It can be used for doing relativistic mechanics as long as gravity is not involved
Fun Fact: It took Einstein only 8 weeks to come up with special relativity.
General Relativity
This is the Einstein Field Equations
It is described as:
“16 coupled hyperbolic-elliptic nonlinear
partial differential equations “
Meaning its very, very hard to solve.
In expanded form it is three pages long, just to define the problem
The Field Equations are used to predict how a distribution of mass will effect space
All the time machines I will mention will be based on solutions to this equation
Fun Facts:
•There is a 7% difference in the time
measured on earth and on a neutron star
•On a rotating disk with a 66,000 g
centripetal acceleration an atomic clock
was used to measure the time dilation for
an experiment
Sources