Reflections on a Walk Along a Circular Track and the Relativity of Time
Walking along a circular track, I realized I covered distance much quicker when walking along the inner circumference, and slower when on the outer circumference. The corresponding distance for an outer section to an inner one helped me better understand the concept of time as relative depending on where you are in the Universe.
The outer edges of the circle, when mapped on to the inner edges, are composed of greater distance and consequently take longer to cover. The inner edges are comparatively shorter and can be covered in a smaller amount of time. So if you were walking on the inner circumference of the circle, you would cover the same mapped distance much faster than I would.
I don't claim to really understand relativity but this does help me, personally, build some foundation for the concept.
In a sense, where you are in the Universe determines your comparative experience of distance and time as opposed to someone else in a different position.
In movies where astronauts somewhere far off in Space stay young while their families at home grow old, perhaps that signifies being on the outer circumference, if the Earth is comparatively in an orbit closer to the “center” (I use this term loosely and mean a center of greater gravitational force, or one center of many within a larger system).
So, while the astronaut experiences a given amount of time; travelling that time-distance from one point on the outer circumference to another, their loved ones at home will have covered much more ground (on the corresponding inner circumference), in comparison to the same measure of the astronaut’s unit of time. And so, time and our experience of it is relative depending on where we are in the Universe. In effect, the astronaut in Outer Space will age slower than his friends and family back on Earth.
Full disclosure: I’m an amateur when it comes to Astrophysics and so all of this could be little more than mumbo-jumbo or at least fodder for a Sci-Fi monologue, but thanks for reading! 📚 I would love to hear from people who study Astrophysics or Cosmology if this is an accurate understanding of things, and learn more in either case. 🤓🧐
