What is time dilation

Upon returning the astronauts clock has measured ten years, so yhe astronaut has aged 10 years. However, when the astronaut reunites with his earth bound twin, the astronauthe sees that the twin has aged 32 years! This is explained due to the fact that the astronaut's twin is traveling at relativistic speeds and therefore his "clock" is slowed down. Let's see how we can calculate the time "difference". The equation for calculating time dilation is as follows:.

The speed of fast-moving ions means that accelerator experiments can test time dilation more precisely than experiments in Earth orbit, says Matthew Mewes, a physicist at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, who is not part of the team.

But the research group is dismantling its longtime collaboration, as there is no larger accelerator they can go to for more powerful tests. This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on September 19, Alexandra Witze works for Nature magazine. Already a subscriber? Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Go Paperless with Digital. Sign up for our Newsletter!

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