time dilation

[Guest]

i'm a little lost here. how does time dilation work again? i can't seem to grasp how someone can "see" time "dilating".. pretend you have two synchronized clocks doing something different for a while, and you come back and put them side by side. if they're sitting at different times - one is ahead of the other - why all of a sudden does this mean time has "dilated"? no matter what you do to the two clocks, you don't change the time - the reason for the different times is because of things happening to the mechanisms that run the clock, not time! anyone??

SteelGolem

 

[Guest]

The reson that one clock is at a diffrent time is not due to the mechnisims (since it works on digital clocks as well) it works due to the diffrence in speed

 

[Guest]

Re:Re:time dilation

I would have to add to your words here just a little.

Without actually disagreeing with you, I think it has to be expanded a little further.

Even a digital clock has a "mechanism" in the form of electrical currents in a circuit resulting in various ways to display the result. LED, Liquid crystal, etc.

Living organisms are mechanisms also. The biologocal clock that is our bodies is also slowed relatively by this dilation process.

While it may be true that speed is the cause of the relative difference, how would the speed itself cause this difference if it were not actually affecting the "mechanism" somehow. Including our brain cells which perceive the relative difference itself, without ever perceiving the effect as it is happenning? It is only when coming back to the original frame of reference that the dilation can be measured.