The universe is an infinite expanse of space moving through what we call time, an ever-changing factor that leads us all in the same direction.
For watchmaking, time is a question of hours, minutes and seconds – but for a physicist, it is a window into the downright bizarre.
Hessel Ruijgh, watch enthusiast and Country Manager Germany at Watchfinder & Co., now highlights three incredible things about time that will probably blow your mind.
And these are the breathtaking facts about the time:
1. The head is older than the feet
We all have the impression that time is a constant, that it always passes the same way no matter what happens. Sometimes it can feel slow or very fast.
But as we all know, this is only based on the perception that time is fixed. This common understanding is wrong. Not only is time not fixed, but it can pass slower or faster depending on your height.
This means that if twins are born, one big and one small, the bigger one is actually older and will continue to get older as time goes on. That is, unless the smaller one moves into the apartment upstairs.
If time passes faster the higher you are, it means your head is older than your feet. Unless you've spent most of your life in a lying position, your head will celebrate its birthday before your feet.
To an outside observer, a clock runs a little slower when it is closer to a large mass; experts call this “gravitational time dilation.”
2. Time passes more slowly in motion
Your grandma would probably tell you that people who are “always on the run” “grow old before their time.” But grandma is not quite right here.
What Grandma didn't understand is that time actually slows down the faster you travel. If you take two very accurate clocks, set them to zero, leave one standing still, and send the other hurtling around the world in an airplane, the clock in the airplane would return showing a lower time than the one that stayed behind.
This is not a thought experiment. This has been extensively tested. It means that if you flew around the world, you would be a fraction of a second younger when you landed at home than if you had just stayed at home.
But that doesn't just mean you're younger than you would have been - it also means traveling back in time.
3. Time can stop completely
If time can be sped up and slowed down, can it be stopped? It's complicated. You can't just stop time. You need a black hole for that.
In fact, the infinitely small point in the center, the singularity, has infinite gravity. Its gravity is so strong that it not only bends light but also prevents it from escaping completely.
If light - or anything else - gets too close to a black hole, it's impossible for it to get back out. There's a point called the event horizon, where gravity becomes so strong that no amount of energy will pull anything back out.
It is the event horizon that can stop time. So time is more than hours, minutes and seconds. It can literally be bent and even broken.
It can be distorted from the very planet we stand on now and stopped by some of the most powerful entities in the universe. And I have a feeling our researchers are only just scratching the surface...
Shots Magazine / Author: Hessel Ruijgh / © Photos: photo-nic.co.uk, Nic, Unsplash (1), Watchfinder (1)
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