I would like to say that time slows down when you’re bored because you aren’t doing anything. However, in reality, the opposite is true. The faster you move the slower time is for you. So, as you approach the speed of light, time stretches out. This concept is known as Time Dilation. We spent about a month in Modern physics studying this concept with long drawn out homework assignments, a silly little project and endless space-time diagrams. We heard a plethora of analogies, all of which were quite dry and boring. Instead of boring you with one of them, I will instead make up my own.

Remember in Superman 3, when Superman went so fast he made time go backwards to reverse all the bad things that happened on Earth? Yeah… that’s not actually possible. You can’t jump back in time simply by increasing your speed. That’s just crazy talk. You can however, make yourself age slower. So, if Superman flew out into space at a speed very close to the speed of light, leaving Clark Kent back on Earth as a sit in (yes yes, I know Superman is Clark Kent, but he’s not real either way so just go with me on this one) for say 8 light years or so and came back, he would be younger that Clark Kent.

Gasp!

Why is this?

Well, Time Dilation says:

T = T₀ * gamma

Basically this is the difference in time between a fixed frame of reference and a moving frame of reference. So, Clark Kent is in the “still” frame of reference and Superman is in the moving frame of reference. However, we are talking from Clark Kent’s point of view. If we look at it from Superman’s point of view, it seems that Clark was the one who suddenly started moving faster. Ack! It’s relative to what frame you’re in? Indeed. (This is also known as the Twin experiment and was proven through the Muon Experiment, yes, the ‘twin’ did indeed age slower when at a resting frame. No, it’s not as cool as putting a cat in a box and guessing whether or not it’s alive, but still rather nifty.)

Now, most major changes like this in the scientific world take a very long time to become accepted. However, Einstein’s theory was so simply explained and written, that it caught on almost over night. It’s publication flared a maelstrom of new physics research. It opened up new study into atomic, molecular and astronomical physics. This led to the theory of black holes, the Michelson-Morley Experiment, the aberration of starlight and relativistic mass.

At the same time Einstein proposed this theory, another theory that we now accept as true (unless you honestly believe the Earth is but 5000 years old and are thus a dancing twat) was the theory of Plate tectonics. While Einstein gained momentum and was easily accepted into the world of science, Plate tectonics took decades to be embraced, even within the world of geology.

Why?

Why would a theory that proposes that the distance between two points changes depending on how fast you’re going and time slows down be embraced faster than one that simply proposes that there are plates on the Earth’s Surface. Which is truly more outlandish?

Any school child can look at a map of the world and see the ‘puzzle pieces’ of the continents. But, how many school children can randomly postulate that space-time bends around mass and gravity?

Even today, outlandish theories are proposed into the scientific world that catch on like wild fire. Take String Theory for example. This theory is un-provable. It was written to be un-provable. It was postulated by some guy in a basement who was reading through old math books and found an equation that looked nifty because it sort of described a wave function. This is bad science. But, people love it because it postulates 12 dimensions. So, these people sit about playing with the equations hoping to find something within them that can be tested and thus ‘proved’. I hope that their work is not in vain, but if it is, they’ll have no one to blame but themselves for practicing bad science.

Relativity, unlike String Theory, was described and set up so tests could be done to prove various facets of it. Relativity helped to explain things that scientists had been struggling with for a long time and opened up an entire new area of science. While I may not like all of the fields of science it did open up to study, I do understand that they need to be explored and probed to enhance the depths of human knowledge and understanding.

I wish the scientific world didn’t pick and choose which sciences to embrace without hesitation. But, it is human nature to want to reach for the impossible things. We have been raised on Science-Fiction that becomes more and more a reality as time goes on. We want to be able to do the things we see on TV. We want to think that the advances are bringing us a step closer to being an ‘advanced’ civilization.

Maybe they are.

But who is to say where the next big idea will come from. Will it be from the small theory written on a bar napkin by a few struggling graduate students who aren’t given the time of day in the scientific world. Or will it be from the quick and easy theory that the world wishes is true?