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| - Time dilation was one of the vocabulary words listed on the chart "A Tunnel in the Sky". This chart was seen in the schoolroom aboard Deep Space 9 in 2369. (DS9: "In the Hands of the Prophets")
- Time dilation is where time passes at a different rate than normal. It can occur naturally, like around a black hole, or be created by artificial means using a time dilation device. (SG1: "Unnatural Selection")
- Time dilation refers to a phenomenon retated to special and general relativity. In special relativity, the time rate of an observer's reference is different from a reference point. This would enable a fast-moving clock to travel into the future while aging very little. In general relativity, differences in gravity between locations can cause time to flow at different rates.
- A relativity effect which becomes important at velocities just below the speed of light. Shipboard time slows appreciably with respect to the rest of the universe. See also: Stasis field
- Time dilation is a scientific concept related to Relativity which states, basically, that for an observer onboard a spaceship travelling at a certain speed any speed at all (though only noticeable at appreciable fractions of the speed of light) with respect to Earth (or any inertial reference frame of your choice), time passes more slowly than it would for an observer on Earth. When near-lightspeed travel becomes involved, the effects become quite drastic: A person might go on a space journey that seems to him to last one year and, on returning, find that 10 years have passed on Earth. This is sometimes extrapolated by science fiction authors to apply to FTL Travel as well, though this does not make much sense physically.
- Time Dilation is a phenomenon that occurs when an object is traveling at a high percentage of lightspeed. Because the object is traveling so fast, Einstein's law of relativity states that time must move at the same pace that the object is moving. Therefore, an object moving at a good fraction of the speed of light will experience the illusion of a normal passing of time, but will actually experience time at a slower pace than the rest of the universe. Dilation is not often experienced or witnessed by many vessels because of the advent of Slipstream by the Vedrans. Most of the civilized races in the galaxy encountered the Vedrans before said races had comprehensive space programs, and as a result many did not send out vessels that would have experienced time dilation. However, some species,
- Time dilation is the phenomenon where the observed time rate of an observer's reference frame is different from that of a different reference frame. In Albert Einstein's theories of relativity the effect is manifested in two ways: The formula for determining time dilation in special relativity is: where ΔT is the time period as measured by a stationary observer, ΔT0 is the time period of the moving object as seen by the stationary observer, is the Lorentz factor, u is the relative velocity between the observer and the object, and c is the speed of light.
- Time dilation is a physical effect first theorized by Albert Einstein in the 20th century. Essentially, when an object accelerates closer to the speed of light, the object experiences less time passing than an outside observer. Speeds that produce noticeable time dilation are referred to as relativistic speeds. In the 24th and 25th centuries, most Federation citizens never experienced the effect, since warp engines don't produce a time dilation effect. (STO novel: The Needs of the Many)
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| abstract
| - Time dilation is the phenomenon where the observed time rate of an observer's reference frame is different from that of a different reference frame. In Albert Einstein's theories of relativity the effect is manifested in two ways:
* In general relativity, clocks at lower potentials in a gravitational field are found to be running slower. This gravitational time dilation is only briefly mentioned in this article but is described elsewhere (see also gravitational red shift).
* In special relativity, clocks that are moving with speed with respect to an inertial system of observation are found to be running slow. This effect is embodied in the Lorentz transformation. The formula for determining time dilation in special relativity is: where ΔT is the time period as measured by a stationary observer, ΔT0 is the time period of the moving object as seen by the stationary observer, is the Lorentz factor, u is the relative velocity between the observer and the object, and c is the speed of light. This effect is extremely small at ordinary speeds, and can then be safely ignored. It is only when an object approaches speeds on the order of 30,000 km/s (1/10 of the speed of light) that it becomes important. Time dilation by the Lorentz factor was predicted by Joseph Larmor (1897), at least for electrons orbiting a nucleus. Thus "... individual electrons describe corresponding parts of their orbits in times shorter for the [rest] system in the ratio :" (Larmor 1897). Time dilation of magnitude corresponding to this (Lorentz) factor has been experimentally confirmed.
- Time dilation was one of the vocabulary words listed on the chart "A Tunnel in the Sky". This chart was seen in the schoolroom aboard Deep Space 9 in 2369. (DS9: "In the Hands of the Prophets")
- Time dilation is where time passes at a different rate than normal. It can occur naturally, like around a black hole, or be created by artificial means using a time dilation device. (SG1: "Unnatural Selection")
- Time Dilation is a phenomenon that occurs when an object is traveling at a high percentage of lightspeed. Because the object is traveling so fast, Einstein's law of relativity states that time must move at the same pace that the object is moving. Therefore, an object moving at a good fraction of the speed of light will experience the illusion of a normal passing of time, but will actually experience time at a slower pace than the rest of the universe. Dilation is not often experienced or witnessed by many vessels because of the advent of Slipstream by the Vedrans. Most of the civilized races in the galaxy encountered the Vedrans before said races had comprehensive space programs, and as a result many did not send out vessels that would have experienced time dilation. However, some species, such as the Human race, did manage to send off some vessels when they thought they were alone in the universe that did experience time dilation. One such ship is the Bellerophon, which was sent by humanity when they were still pre-contact with the Vedrans. It was launched into space as an exploration vessel, and it had an engine which provided enough power to make them experience relativistic effects. They used this effect to their advantage, using the dilation to traverse great distances across the universe while powering down the engine when they needed supplies or fuel.
- Time dilation is a physical effect first theorized by Albert Einstein in the 20th century. Essentially, when an object accelerates closer to the speed of light, the object experiences less time passing than an outside observer. Speeds that produce noticeable time dilation are referred to as relativistic speeds. In the 24th and 25th centuries, most Federation citizens never experienced the effect, since warp engines don't produce a time dilation effect. (STO novel: The Needs of the Many) In 2156, during the start of the Earth-Romulan War, the starship Columbia was the subject of a Romulan experimental attack. As a result, the ship's warp drive was disabled. Captain Erika Hernandez ordered the ship to travel toward the nearest inhabited planet at relativistic speeds, a journey which would take six months from the perspective of the crew, but years to the outside universe. (ST novel: Gods of Night) In 2409, Charles Ryerson was discovered near Barnard's Star by the USS Zife, having been traveling in his small craft at relativistic speeds for twenty years. As a result, he had aged very little over that period of time. (STO novel: The Needs of the Many)
- Time dilation refers to a phenomenon retated to special and general relativity. In special relativity, the time rate of an observer's reference is different from a reference point. This would enable a fast-moving clock to travel into the future while aging very little. In general relativity, differences in gravity between locations can cause time to flow at different rates.
- A relativity effect which becomes important at velocities just below the speed of light. Shipboard time slows appreciably with respect to the rest of the universe. See also: Stasis field
- Time dilation is a scientific concept related to Relativity which states, basically, that for an observer onboard a spaceship travelling at a certain speed any speed at all (though only noticeable at appreciable fractions of the speed of light) with respect to Earth (or any inertial reference frame of your choice), time passes more slowly than it would for an observer on Earth. When near-lightspeed travel becomes involved, the effects become quite drastic: A person might go on a space journey that seems to him to last one year and, on returning, find that 10 years have passed on Earth. This is sometimes extrapolated by science fiction authors to apply to FTL Travel as well, though this does not make much sense physically. In general relativity, an additional time dilation effect is caused by gravity. Time passes more slowly nearer to the bottom of a gravitational potential well (e.g. on the surface of a planet) than higher up in one (e.g. in an airplane). This dilation, in addition to the dilation due to differences in velocity, needs to be compensated for by clocks on satellites. In fiction, this effect is often used to facilitate a variation on Mayfly-December Romance, with the earth-bound partner as the "short-lived" one compared to the space traveller. Such plots can also involve a familial relationship instead of a romance -- in this case, the earth-bound character is usually the space traveller's twin or child. Note that though many writers extend this so traveling faster than light means aging backwards, that isn't how the math says it works. The time scale factor for speeds faster than c is imaginary, not negative. However, if an object is travelling faster-than-light that means there is always some slower-than-light frame reference that sees the object travelling backwards in time -- or possibly moving in the opposite direction, with events on the object occurring backwards. The Other Wiki has an article on tachyons, theoretical objects that move faster than the speed of light, and explains how this works. Rip Van Winkle is a related trope in more fantastical works. Year Inside, Hour Outside is the inverse, and tends to show up in softer works or those using magic rather than physics.
* You have to get pretty darned close to the speed of light to see any significant time dilation effects at all. At 90% of the speed of light, your "gamma factor" -- how much slower your clock will seem to a stationary observer -- will only be about 2. To get a gamma factor of five million (roughly what you'd need for one minute of your time to equal a decade in "rest time") would require moving at 99.999999999998% of the speed of light.
* Time dilation works both ways. To the guy standing on Earth, you're whizzing past him at 90% of the speed of light, so to him your clock seems to only be running at half normal speed. But to you, you're standing still and the Earth is whizzing past you at 90% of the speed of light, so to you the clocks on Earth seem to be running at half normal speed. To you, the people back on Earth are the ones aging more slowly. This seeming paradox is only resolved upon carefully examining the path taken by both observers -- or, in this example, by you and your friend back on Earth -- and realizing that you had to decelerate and turn back, tracing a path in 4-dimensional spacetime that is not a straight line. According the odd notion of distance defined in 4-d spacetime, a straight line actually has the longest possible distance, corresponding to the longest possible time. Then you, the traveler, will experience a smaller subjective amount of time than your buddy on Earth.
* GPS has a small correction for time dilation between the surface of the earth and up in space. A satellite in space experiences 0.6 nanoseconds more for every second on Earth. Examples of Time Dilation include:
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