(August 11, 2010 at 7:10 pm)ABierman1986 Wrote: My question is what is happening to the fabric of spacetime as one mass speeds past another, why does time slow down? An increased mass and shortened length would imply a more focused gravity well doesn't it? Since we know how light bends around gravity I thought that maybe the relativistic effects could be the result of a more focused gravity well
From what I understand of general relativity, its gravity it’s self that effects time. This is the theory of gravitational time dilation. Basically it states that higher gravitational potential causes time to slow down. This can be experimentally proven. Simply place 2 synced atomic clocks at differing altitudes (with a gravitational field) and over a period of time they will become out of sync.
My thoughts on this are that as space and time are (according to Einstein) one and the same thing, I.E Space-time then if you distort space with gravity you must also distort time.
"A man who keeps one eye on the past is blind in one eye. A man who ignores the past is blind in both."
