4 ms·
> Seconds tick by ever so slightly faster atop a mountain than they do in the valleys of Earth. Did they push an update with new laws of physics, or have I com
by WhyNotHugo 2y ago
> Seconds tick by ever so slightly faster atop a mountain than they do in the valleys of Earth.
Did they push an update with new laws of physics, or have I completely missed something?
- yencabulator 2y agoThey did, about 108 years ago.
- bajsejohannes 2y agoThis is because of relativity and the fact that there's more force at in the valley than the mountain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation
- SirMaster 2y agoWhat about the fact that you are moving faster when on top of a mountain than in a valley due to the rotation of the earth and being farther from the center of rotation? Does this also have an effect on your relative time?
- pdonis 2y agoYes, it makes the equipotential surfaces of Earth's gravitational field (the surfaces on which time ticks "at the same rate") ellipsoids instead of spheres. The "geoid", which is the standard such surface that defines UTC on Earth, is the equipotential surface that averages to the Earth's sea level, and is 13 miles further from Earth's center at the equator vs. the poles.
- janosdebugs 2y agoI'm guessing it's relativity doing its job.
- ranie93 2y agogravity?
- mastercheph 2y agoRelativity: The Special and the General Theory (1916) Einstein, Albert https://www.abebooks.com/9780517884416/Relativity-Special-General-Theory-Einstein-0517884410/ https://www.abebooks.com/9780517884416/Relativity-Special-Ge...
- noiv 2y agoThat's a 404, sad.
- EA 2y agoGravity decreases with distance from the Earth’s center. The lower the gravitational potential (the closer the clock is to the source of gravitation), the slower time passes, speeding up as the gravitational potential increases (the clock moving away from the source of gravitation).
- WhyNotHugo 2y agoFor an object which is accelerating time passes slower. But an object on a mountaintop isn't accelerating, because the mountain has an upward counter-force. What am I missing here?
- aaroninsf 2y ago[dead]