Why does time slows down around a mass?

Question

thanks

Answer 1

Yes, by Einstein's General Theory of Relativity time runs slower in gravitational fields, as produced by any mass. This has been verified by placing atomic clocks in orbit and at high altitudes and comparing them to atomic clocks on the Earth. They speed up, although the effect is very small.

Answer 2

There is no general "time" field. All time is limited to the thing being observed. The feeling that we are living in a universal "present" is an illusion. All measurement is constrained by the limiting speed of light, so in moving frames actions slow down. Einstein showed that acceleration is indistinguishable from gravity, so anything in an accelerating frame (such as near a mass) will experience a reduced speed of activity: its measurements of activity (clocks etc.) will appear slowed down.

Answer 3

Einstein's theorem of general relativity.

It says the higher the mass, the more it distorts space and time around it, so that everything near it is affected by the distortion. Essentially, it stretches space, so that when a thing (say a spaceship) gets close to a large mass, time slows down for outside observers, but for people on the ship itself, they feel no difference.



Remember that space and time are part of one thing in Relativity.

Answer 4

One prediction of Einstein's theory of general relativity is that time slows down in gravity fields. The stronger the gravity, the more time slows. Gravity weakens with distance from a massive object. Like if you drop a sphere into the water,the water is displaced around the sphere but with space/time the area surrounding the sphere is compressed and displaced at the same time.

Answer 5

It's called gravitational time dilation. It has to do with 3 basic things: relativistic time dilation explained in special relativity, gravitational potential, and the equivalence principal explained in general relativity.



To keep this brief, I'll gloss over relativistic time dilation. It's a result of velocity, however. For two reference frames going at different velocities, time will appear to slow down for the other. This is due only to the speed of light being an absolute reference frame.



Gravitational potential is the energy represented by objects of different heights in a gravitational field. An object one meter higher than another will have the potential energy associated with how fast it would go if it fell one meter, from the reference frame of the other. So it translates to velocity, tying in with the above paragraph. Maybe you can see where this is going.



The equivalence principal states that gravity is the same as acceleration in every respect (except for some minor ones which can be dismissed in a local framework). An accelerating object carries a velocity difference between to points in its acceleration. This velocity difference represents two reference frames in which relativistic time dilation applies. The same must also be true in a gravitational field, therefore. Two objects of different heights represent two points in an accelerated reference frame. Time dilation between them is the same as the velocity of an object falling from the higher one to the lower one.



All this is the brain child of Einstein, of course.

Answer 6

Time is an entity which is affected by mass or in other words gravity...greater the gravity, greater the distortion of space and time.

Answer 7

Because gravity is giving you momentum, thus causing you to move a little faster through space.

Answer 8

It's due to the fact that gravity bends spacetime. Or rather, stretches it. Stretched spacetime = slower flow of time.

Answer 9

Following by themes is c as maximum and proving z=e^iphi.

Answer 10

To answer that question one would have to know the nature of 'space/time',

and no-one does.

We know it happens. We only guess at the 'why' of it.