People on Top Floors Age Faster.

Only by 90 Billionths of a Second in a Lifetime, but Still ...

Like a vignette from The Twilight Zone, new research shows that you'll age slightly faster standing on a staircase than you do on the floor below. The finding is linked to the strange, time-bending effects of Albert Einstein's theories of relativity, which for the first time have been shown to affect earthbound distances and time frames.

This theory is the basis of a famous thought experiment known as the twin paradox, in which a twin sibling who travels on a fast-moving rocket ship would return home younger than the other twin.

The equations of relativity also predict that gravity similarly slows down, or dilates, time.

"So if you are experiencing stronger gravitational pull, then your time is going to go slower," said study co-author James Chin-Wen Chou of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

National Geographic

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Well I do not know much about "Atomic Clocks", But I thought this was an interesting read.
And to me at least, I find this very interesting how we age faster being on Top Floors, and such.

I'm going to read more about this to see if my brain can comprehend what is being said.

-Enjoy.

In terms of physics, this has been known for a while, still it's very interesting.

Next time I go parachute jumping, rather than thinking of it as free falling, I'll think of it as going from one time zone to another...

How come plane journeys seem to drag so much then. Your up high and going fast yet they seem to last for ever.

reply to post by tarifa37


It's affect is only noticeable to the observer. So the person in the plane would experience time as a person on the ground, but if the person on the ground were to observe the person in the air, time would appear to be moving slower.

Isn't this backwards.
The faster you go time slows down and you age less.
Gravity is the same everywhere 32ft per second per second.

reply to post by TeslaandLyne


The faster you go, time appears to slow down to the observer. Time will still pass at the same rate for you.

Also, Gravity isn't constant either, even on Earth

reply to post by Oozii


Interesting, does that mean that I should move, I love my tenth floor apartment and the view blows me away, if this is true I don't care, not moving, in fact since moving here I have never felt better.

Here Is the experiment they used to prove the theory, putting an very accurate clock in an aircraft and keeping one on the earth.

Two effects of relativity come into play at once in this experiment,

A) gravitational relativity, by moving further away from the earth you are increasing your Gravitational potential and thus speeding up time (relative to someone closer to the earth) This effect is described in "General Relativity"

B) Kinetic relativity, The faster you move the slower time gets for you, This is described in the theory of "Special Relativity"

Alright I'm starting to understand this more.

If I'm correct, I read, that if you were to be going at the speed of light, traveling in space, and 5 hours pass, on Earth it would more or less be 5 years that pass.

But you wouldn't age the 5 Years, only 5 Hours.

see Simple inference of time dilation due to relative velocity

the fact that for the moving observer the period of the clock is longer than in the frame of the clock itself.

So then the moving person high up in the building thinks the ground world is going slower.

So he ages and everyone on the ground is younger.

So People on Top Floors Age Faster.

reply to post by TeslaandLyne


As far as I can see the experiment in the OP didn't mention Kinetic Relativity only Gravitational.

In actuality as you say your greater speed at the top of the building would slightly counteract the effect of your greater gravitational potential, Gravitational potential speeding time up and your higher speed slowing it down.

As the experiment was done by measuring the actual effect on the top floor of a building with an atomic clock I guess that the Kinetic component has less of an effect then the Gravitational one as they measured time speeding up

but how much is this "faster" ...

I can see gravity pulling mass at some acceleration which for the most part
is 32fpsps on earth and black holes will have greater time dilation gravity
wise.
I did not check the gravity dilation formula.
However atomic clock variations I am not aware of such as
being affected by height itself and any radiation background not
being shielded that might affect measurements.
Gravity might be less on top of a building and rotational force
can enter as gravity in another direction.
I didn't see instructions on how things work so I'm at a loss
to see this so far.
Sorry about that, thanks for your help.
Going back to wiki for gravity time dilation.
ED: Back to time dilation for a minuet.
under Time dilation and space flight

Time dilation would make it possible for passengers in a fast-moving vehicle to travel further into the future while aging very little, in that their great speed slows down the rate of passage of on-board time. That is, the ship's clock (and according to relativity, any human travelling with it) shows less elapsed time than the clocks of observers on Earth.

This all happens in the same time so when the passengers get back to
Earth the lapse time should be the same as Earth time.
Nothing has happened.
ED+: under gravity:

clock that is closer to the gravitational mass, i.e. deeper in its "gravity well", appears to go slower than the clock that is more distant from the mass

So the clock is affected as part of it mechanism in the nature of things but the same time
has evolved to each observer not knowing of the others difference.
I suppose they compare notes and find how each recorded the time if they
go to the inertial rest position.

Why does this have anything to do with gravity and Einstein's theories? Why can it not just be that if you spend most of your time on the higher floors of any building, it takes you more time to go grocery shopping because you must now use either the stairs or the elevator to get to ground level in order to proceed with your errand? Hence more time passes, more energy is used, you age more?

Amirite? Eh?

Next I'll tell you my cockamamie theory on how people who consume large amounts of caffeine age quicker too!

Time slows down (relatively speaking) as you enter a gravitational field.

So, on the ground floor, you might live up to a whole second longer.
The fountain of youth revealed at last!

The idea that people on top floors age faster contradicts the fact that people who live in the Ukraine and the Caucus Mountains in Georgia live longer lives. So, at this point I am not at all convinced.


ADMIN: The Avatar and signature on this post are NOT mine. I've already sent a message regarding this but I also want to publicly state that if this will not or cannot be stopped then I will have to cancel my account. I don't want to do this but this is disgusting and wrong. It also looks like some of my posts may have been deleted. I posted a comment the other day on another persons account thanking them for adding me as a friend on ATS - now this happened. Please fix this or I will have to cancel my account. Thank You.



Well, it is obviously not just me. I see on the board other people also have the same Avatar and signature.
I assume it is a troll?

Originally posted by danj3ris
Why does this have anything to do with gravity and Einstein's theories? Why can it not just be that if you spend most of your time on the higher floors of any building, it takes you more time to go grocery shopping because you must now use either the stairs or the elevator to get to ground level in order to proceed with your errand? Hence more time passes, more energy is used, you age more?

Amirite? Eh?

Next I'll tell you my cockamamie theory on how people who consume large amounts of caffeine age quicker too!

Because Atomic Clocks don't go grocery shopping and thats what they measure the time difference with

Originally posted by The Juice
Time slows down (relatively speaking) as you enter a gravitational field.

So, on the ground floor, you might live up to a whole second longer.
The fountain of youth revealed at last!

Well, technically you would live the same length of time.

You might die a second later though heh

I was just thinking, and thought if the situation was right, a 90 Billionths of Second could mean life or death.

Don't you think?

Why stop at the top floors of buildings? Why not address the issue of aging faster of those living in the mountains? Surely, mountain folks are higher up that ground zero and thus they are closer to the skies if not the heavens where immortals reside.