3 ms·

Time dilation and time travel are two very different things.

• rpedela 13y ago
  What is the difference?
  • hacknat 13y ago
    Time dilation is about one frame reference, let's call it "a" being simultaneous with another frame reference, "b", yet "a" experiences slower time from the perspective of "b". The classic and dramatic example is if an astronaut left earth and zipped around the galaxy several times at the speed of light. When he/she returned there perception of time would be that they experienced very little of it, while the earth would seem to them to have elapsed over a great deal of time. Is this technically time travel? From a psychological point of view it is absolutely time travel, but from a physics point of view, not really. We all experience time dilation in unnoticeable amounts during our life. Someone who is at a higher altitude than you will experience time a tiny, tiny, tiny amount slower than you. To my mind, time travel means I can go forwards and backwards in time. Time dilation, from a a psychological point of view, is about slowing one thing down relative to another. Like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZRYyejNksk#t=9m59s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZRYyejNksk#t=9m59s