0

How fast or slow compared to my alarm clock time does time passes in a place where there is no gravitational pull and where you are not moving. I don't know if my question is clear, but is there some sort of "absolute pace of time" ?

Hakim
  • 165
  • 6

3 Answers3

2

Is there an absolute pace of time, no.

Is your clock , in a region without gravity, (and at "rest" relative to other objects) "ticking" faster than your alarm clock on the Earth's surface, yes.

But obviously you physically cannot escape the effect of gravity, no matter how far away the mass-energy sources are, so this will vary from observer to observer, i.e. position dependent,

Also you cannot eliminate differing relative motion with respect to the pull of the other objects in the universe, so you will not be able to establish an absolute time in that regard either, as this will vary for each observer.

I can see where you are coming from, as regards thinking absolute equals away from all other influences, but physically that's not possible in practice.

  • +1, but while I agree that there is no "absolute rest", there is a preferred frame of reference in cosmology, namely the one in which the CMB is isotropic (has no dipole). Here you can rightfully claim to be at rest wrt. the Universe, i.e. to have zero peculiar velocity in comoving coordinates. – pela Jul 02 '15 at 00:36
  • Note also that even here on Earth, the gravitational field is so weak that time runs slower only by a factor of 1 in $10^{-9}$ wrt. a hypothetical empty universe. – pela Jul 02 '15 at 00:41
  • 1
    @pela points taken and thanks, I do intend to post a question about the CMB and frame of reference but I need to read up more on it to ask / phrase the question properly. –  Jul 02 '15 at 01:08
  • Thank you all for your replies, they clarified things for me – Hakim Jul 02 '15 at 07:31
1

There isn't a such thing as "absolute time." Some events – they are called space-like events – can't even be agreed to happen in an "objective order."

Only time-like events can be universally agreed to happen in a particular order, but there's no such thing as "universal time." For you, time will always tick per one second by second, and that will apply to every reference frame.

Madde Anerson
  • 797
0

The notion of absolute time for all observers in all reference frames has been debunked by Einsteins theory if special relativity. Prior to that, scientists believed that there might be an ether that permeated all space, and from which a universal reference frame could be derived. However, when Michelson and Morley did their famous experiments attempting to measure the speed of light, the realized it was constant regardless of what reference frame they measured it from, and the constancy of the speed of light is among the core pillars of Special relativity which emphasizes the non existence of a universal or "correct" reference frame for measuring time or events in our universe. Your question has irrelevant details, just read up on special relativity.

Noon
  • 1