I went over Professor Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity and we share many of the same views but there seems to be lack for explanation for why time dilation, a phenomenon that objects experience time relative to their speed, occurs. So, I would like to offer my explanation for why we experience time dilation.
First, I would like to explain my concept of light. When we are observing some object, the object that we see through our eyes is nothing but some information that our brain has processed using the light particles that had bounced off from the object. Thus, light particles relay information of the objects that they had bounced or originated from, and our brain simply compiles the relayed information into a picture of the object and uploads it into our mind. Therefore, a light is synonymous to a code of information, our brain is synonymous to a compiler that translates the given information from the light, and the source of the light is synonymous to a programmer. (more on this later)
As one of Professor Einstein’s two main postulates, he assumes the speed of light is time-invariant, meaning the speed of light does not change regardless of the speed of the light source.
To explain his postulate, let’s assume that the maximum speed that light can reach is capped, which we call c. Thus, even though a light source is traveling at some velocity, at an instantaneous moment when the light source emits light, that light is not affected by the whatever the speed the light source was traveling. Simply put, light’s speed is fixed at c.
But, what about for an observer?
Part 1: Our Perception of the World (Why Our Perception is Distorted)
As we assumed, the speed of light is capped. But is it fixed from an observer’s point-of-view? I would think NO. Because, the light’s speed change relative to, not the source’s velocity (unless the source is the one observing), but to the observer.
Say, you are constantly shooting a laser beam that changes its color every second, and someone starts racing against that light in a super-fast rocket. As the rocket accelerates, the light from the laser will zoom past the rocket while changing in different colors. As the rocket gets closer and closer to the speed of light, you will start to notice that the laser’s light is changing less and less frequently against that rocket. As the rocket is getting closer to the speed of light, the rocket should fly constant next to the same color of the laser beam; as the rocket gets closer to the speed of light, the rocket and whatever the color the rocket is flying next to should be seeming to stretch out.
Why? As we assumed, the speed of light is fixed. So, as the rocket is nearing the speed of light, the instantaneous moments that light particles bounce off from the rocket should be getting “spaced out”, in other words, the light particles that bounce off from the rocket to reach the observer is getting spread out.
To help you understand, imagine someone is taking a picture of a car every 1 second from a wide angle. And as the car starts moving, there will be greater gaps in between each pictures of the car- this is what I mean by getting “spaced out”.
Now, back to the rocket illustration, since, for us to observe the rocket, there must be some light that travels to the rocket and bounces off it, as the rocket gets closer to the speed of light, the light particles that are traveling to the rocket and being bounced back are getting “spaced out”. The light particles that hit the very back of the rocket will reach you first, and, since the rocket is moving so fast, at the instantaneous moment that other light particles hit the next portion of the rocket will be “spaced out” by whatever the distance rocket has traveled compared to the first light particles that bounced from the back of the rocket (greater the speed of the rocket, greater the delays or spaces between instantaneous moments); thus, the rocket will to look as if it is stretching to an observer.
I have personally drawn up an illustration of the rocket example- excuse my poor drawing. The numbers represent each instantanious moments of light. The arrows pointing to the left in the middle represent lights that are emmited from a light source, the laser light bulb. The arrows pointing to the right represent instantanious moments of the light that were emmited, hit and bounced from the rocket, and finally on its way back to an observer. The red dots represent what I mean by light particles are getting “spaced out” and “delayed”.
By the time the light in the picture reaches the wing of the rocket (green arrows), the rocket has already traveled even more distance compared to when the yellow light had reached the back of the rocket (represented as number 9). Thus, the light that relays the information of the wing of the rocket (green arrows) will come back to the observer at a delayed time compared to the yellow light - and, of course, the magnitude of this delay will depend of the speed of the rocket. For this discussion, we will call this phenomenon the speed-light distortion.
Now, what would happen once the rocket reaches the speed of light?
I think the answer will depend on the situation. For the simplicity of our discussion, let’s consider that the rocket does not emit any light and the only light we have available is the light bulb at the starting point.
Continuing from the illustration, when the rocket reaches the speed of light, it should "seem" to us that the rocket has disappeared, since the lights emitted from our light source can no longer catch up to the rocket, and thus we would no longer able to receive updated information of the rocket.
However, if there are light sources from multiple directions or the rocket itself is emitting light, the rocket will be visible. Thus, this shows our perception is, to some extent, depends on directions of light and an object in respect (relative) to us. Thus, our perception is relative to the direction of a moving object in respect to direction of light.
- So far, to put it all together, our perception is relative to direction and speed of an object that we are observing in respect to us.
Part 2: Our Perception of Time (Why Our Perception of Time is Relative)
What do you consider as your “present moment”? You may say your present moment is “now”, which is correct, but what if I were to ask you if the world that you see right now are also part of your present moment, the exact moment when you say “now”?
Well, the truth is that whatever we perceive is not the actual present moment but most always their past. Because, whenever you perceive something, you are perceiving through light and, as soon as the light that carries the information of an object that you are observing travels some distance away from the object, that light is now carrying the object’s past information.
Thus, whatever we “perceive” as the present moment for objects that we observe and the "actual" present moment for those object is the amount of TIME that the light from the objects had took to reach me. Because, as soon as light bounces from an object, that light is now carrying the object's "past" information. Just as how the light particles that had bounced from the rocket are relaying the rocket’s “past” information only.
Thus, light can only carry information of the past, since any distance light travels will be carrying only the past information. And greater the distance we are from whatever the object we are observing, greater the discrepancy between what we perceive as our “now (present moment)” and the object’s “now” moment- which is what I would call the distance-time distortion.
- Thus, the distances between you and all the things in the world distort your perception of what is the "actual" present moments of the world.
Moving on, when someone is speeding away from a light source (in the perspective of the rocket man), that person is receiving the light's information in less intensity (since light's speed is relative to our motion), which means that person is receiving the light's past information at a slower rate, meaning the time itself is slowing down (in the laser example, the color of the laser light will change less frequently as the rocket travels faster; but to us, the light changes color every .1 second), therefore, this implies we PERCEIVE time relative to- not only distance, but also to speed and to which object we are “referring” to.
To show you what I mean, the rocket man may perceive that the time is slowing down since the color of the laser is changing less frequently, but, in the perspective of the person shooting the laser beam, the laser light is changing colors exactly every .1 second. And as soon as the rocket man stops, the laser light resumes to change colors every .1 seconds without making up for what had “slowed down”. Thus, for the rocket man, he has pretty much “gained” time in respect to the person shooting the laser beam.
Let us take this example to more extreme. If the rocket man reaches the speed of light, he will fly next to the same color of the laser light. This suggests to the rocket man that the time has stopped, which is true to some sense since, in respect to the laser shooter, the time has really stopped flowing. As soon as the rocket man slows down, the laser light will resume from the point where the rocket had reached its speed of light and was flying constant next to a same color light. The laser light will not travel faster than the speed of light to make up for the “stopped time” but flow in constant speed, showing that the time that the rocket perceived as stopped was indeed stopped in the laser shooter’s perspective of time.
In summary, while the rocket man perceived that the time had stopped- since the colors of the light stopped changing- the person shooting the laser is still shooting the laser and it is still changing in color every .1 second, showing that the time is still flowing for the laser shooter while not for the rocket man. This is what I believe Mr. Einstein calls frame of reference.
Part 2: Our Experience of Time (Why Experience of Time is Relative)
According to Mr. Einstein's Time Dilation phenomenon, an object will "experience" time relative to the speed of its motion (not perception of time but experience). This means, faster an object moves, slower the time will flow for the object.
To find the answer, let's go back to the example of a rocket and a laser beam, but this time, the laser beam is shooting, not colors, but time (imagine Batman's light but instead shows time like a clock instead of the bat). Additionally, the spaceship is also shooting an identical laser beam back to the laser shooter that shows time just like the one it is racing against. See the picture below and imagine that the light beam tells time instead of the bat.
And below picture shows how the rocket is racing against the laser beam. I have included 12:00 from the rocket's laser beam to show that the laser beam carries information of time.
As the rocket accelerates, the person in the rocket should see that the time of the laser beam from the origin is slowing down (same concept as in the previous rocket example). And, a person standing at the origin should also see the time from the rocket is slowing down. So, which one of the time is really slowing down, or both?
From the rocket man’s point of view, the time should be perceived to slow down, since the laser’s time from the origin will be updating less frequently; after he has reached the speed of light, the laser’s time from the origin should stop updating, and as soon as he comes to a stop or slows down the laser’s time from the origin will resume flowing from the stopped point of time during his light speed moment, all the while the laser shooter at the origin is shooting the laser’s time at a normal speed, showing that the rocket man has "saved" time in respect to the person back at the origin. Looking at it this way, this can only be understood as that the slowing down of the rocket man's time that he perceives from moving in motion was indeed a slowing down of, not his own timeline, but from the perspective of the laser shooter’s timeline from the origin. It was a slowing down of time in a sense that, from the perspective of something stationary, the time did slow down.
To take this example to the extreme and say the rocket man accelerates past the speed of light (I understand this may not be feasible but I believe considering this is very vital to understand the nature and relationship between light and time). If the rocket man were to push past the speed of light, he should be seeing that laser’s time from the origin is rewinding back, since he is now catching up to the laser beam that had previously went passed him, all the while the laser shooter’s time is flowing normally. This shows, the rocket man’s time in respective to the laser shooter’s timeline has rewinded back to the laser shooter’s past.
From the laser shooter’s view at the origin, the rocket's laser that shows time should also seem to slow down since the rocket’s light is getting spaced out (speed-light distortion). And when the rocket accelerates past the speed of light, the laser beam from the rocket from this moment should become so diluted or “spaced out” (imagine stretching of a coiled spring) that the laser shooter would notice this as the slowing down of time- not of his own but the rocket man’s timeline- since the laser shooter is smart enough to differentiate between his laser’s time and the laser’s time of the rocket.
When the rocket accelerates past the speed of the light, the light from the rocket should get even more spaced out and, therefore, the time that the laser shooter perceives from the rocket should slow down even more- but the time will not stop or rewind back, unlike from the rocket man’s perspective. And as the rocket slows down, these instantaneous intervals that the rocket sends out light should decrease (imagine squeezing the stretched-out coiled spring now), thereby returning the flow of the rocket’s time back to normal again as the rocket comes to a stop- that is, in the perspective of the laser shooter.
Thus, one can only reconcile the difference in perception of each other’s time and the nature of the differences (while the rocket man perceived rewinding of laser shooter’s time, the laser shooter only perceived rocket’s slowing down of time) as that the rocket man’s perception of slowing down of time was the real slowing down of time in respect to the origin or any stationary objects.
Looking at it this way, this can only be understood as that the slowing down and rewinding of the time that rocket man observes from moving in motion was indeed a slowing down of, not his flow of time, but in respect to the observer at the origin's timeline. It was a slowing down of time in a sense that, from the perspective of the observer at the starting line, the time of the rocket has slowed down compared to his.
But the question is, how would the rocket man actually experience this? (Why Time Dilation Occurs)
To help answer this question comprehensively, we will elaborate on our previous illustration; however, now, the rocket has a laser-clock shooting to the forward direction so that the rocket man can now see his own flow of time. This forward-facing laser clock represents the rocket man’s perception of his own timeline’s flow of time. It looks something like this:
As the rocket accelerates, the laser-clock from his rocket should seem to slow down- since the speed of light is fixed thus the light from the laser should become less fast as the rocket becomes faster.
To help you understand, imagine the rocket’s laser-clock show as an analog clock which its second hand rotating smoothly. Now, as the rocket accelerates, the light particles that carry information of the time travels at a slower rate in respect to the rocket, which implies the second hand of the clock will update at a slower rate. This is how the rocket man will perceive time. And as the rocket reaches the speed of light, the time will stop updating and thus the rocket man’s flow of time has indeed stopped. Because, as soon as the rocket man slows down, the time will start resume flowing from the point when it was stopped.
The below picture shows passage of 6 seconds of the rocket’s time during acceleration. At the 7 second mark, the rocket is traveling at the speed of light. 6th second is much shorter in interval compared to the 1st second interval since the light that carries information of the 6th second traveled much shorter distance- due to the rocket’s fast speed, the light particles carrying the information of the 6th second was unable to get away from the rocket as much compared to when the rocket was slow.
The point of the illustration above is to illustrate that a speed of our motion shortens our distance of time. To help us understand this, let’s take this example to an extreme. As the rocket accelerates passed the speed of light, the rocket should able to reach light particles from the past, starting with 6th second, then 5th second and so on. If you notice, the distance of the 6th second interval is much shorter compared to the others. Thus, the slowing down of time that the rocket man experiences is demonstrated by the shortening of the time’s distance (just as how the distance of the 6th second interval is shorter than the preceding seconds).
Now, what would happen if we continue to accelerate the rocket or let it keep traveling faster than the speed of light?
Intuitively, the rocket should eventually catch up to its past and should run out of the past to catch up to. However, this is an impossible scenario since we cannot possibly go beyond the very start of our lives, which is represented by the very first light that we give off when we are born (perhaps infrared light?). All things with mass can be calculated with energy and the speed of light, as shown by Professor Einstein's equation: E=MC^2.
Thus, as soon as we are given life in our mother’s womb, we start emitting our own light, which is the start of our own timeline, and this timeline flows in the speed of light, which means our speed of motion relative to the speed of light will also affect the speed of our timeline’s speed.
If it is true that infrared light is indeed our light, then that means higher the body heat that we generate, faster we are speeding up our timeline. I believe there has been experiments where cold-shock of animals led to increase in their lifespan.
This theory also could also explain why UV light, which has smaller frequency, causes premature aging since UV light travels faster, thereby speeding up out timeline.
This is my explanation and argument for the time-dilation effect as well as how I see the natures of time, light, distance and speed, which I did resort to using any formulas or numbers but purely through my imagination, so that a layman could even comprehend. I will continue to work to revise and make this more comprehensible, so please leave any feedbacks if there were any confusing, contradictory, or false points.
In much respect to Professor Einstein and his ingenuity, I leave with his quote:
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Albert Einstein.
