Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Good afternoon,

I had a question regarding the relationship between gravity and time. I understand that gravity has can warp space and time to do an objects mass. I also understand that if an astronaut were to leave the gravitational field of Earth, time would pass slower relative to those who stayed on Earth. Could this be replicated as an experiment by making artificial gravity and putting a non gps clock inside a container and a satellite gps clock outside to see if time would move slower within the spinning container which would make the centrifugal forces much like gravity. Would this be a suitable valid experiment and on top of that, would this idea make sense? Could it be carried out?

I had posted a question on the topic of time and gravity and whether it would be possible for a replication of Jupiter's gravity. Because an object like Jupiter that has a large mass, is able to distort time, would it be possible to slow relative time down in an experiment? -Thank you.


[Administrator note: your questions have been combined.]

Hi,

This isn't my expertise, so if any other Experts would like to weigh in, that might be helpful, too.

My understanding is that time dilation results from differences between observers in 1) gravity, and in 2) relative velocity. A spinning container would not induce a gravitational field like one created by Jupiter, even though the force may feel like gravity to those inside it.

The spinning container, however, would create a time delay due to differences in relative velocity. I like Wikipedia's visualization of this concept: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dila ... lation.gif

You'd likely need precision clocks to perceive the time difference. Astronauts on the International Space Station only experience about a 7ms difference in time after 6 months, even though the ISS moves fast (compared to the usual speeds on earth).

I hope that helps. Please let us know if you have any more questions.

Best,
Charles