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I tried to read a bit about relativistic time dilation, but the maths and complex physics overwhelmed me, confused me -I'm not trained in this field beyond common divulgation and basic education, and I'm not interested in physics professionally-, so this put me off the subject but I'm still curious about it, so I'll ask it simply enough in an attempt to get a concise answer.

If, say, someone sat on a bench at a park while Earth is going through rotation and traslation as usual, and someone else ran by, also rotating with Earth, there would be a minimal time dilation on the runner's clock from the sitting guy's point of view. Does this mean the runner is moving faster in his own timeframe or slower? I ask this because, although his clock is ticking slower, by moving faster, so I read, one can go further into the future.

Does this mean time advances slower for him, or he is advancing faster in time?

  • Note that the first thing about relativity is that things are relative. There is no such thing as "moving faster". As far as each person can tell, they are each at rest and the other person is moving by them. So they should see the same effects, i.e. each will observe the other's clock as slow. See the linked question for more information. – BioPhysicist Feb 23 '20 at 04:49
  • You can easily measure the speed of your own time. Wear identical wristwatches on both hands. Then measure the speed of one wristwatch by using the other. Put your hands next to each other and watch by how many minutes the left wristwatch advances while the right one advances exactly by one minute. What do you think the result would be? How many minutes per minute? Do you think this result would depend on where you are, on the Earth or in a spaceship? The speed of your own time always is one minute per minute regardless of your motion. – safesphere Feb 23 '20 at 08:52

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