(ORDO NEWS) — It is known that the speed of light in vacuum is an absolute value, which is an inviolable cosmic speed limit.
Recall that the speed of light in a vacuum is 299,792,458 meters per second, or 1.08 billion kilometers per hour!
According to Albert Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity, all physical processes in a moving body proceed more slowly than in a similar body at rest. This effect also extends to time, which, as the speed increases, begins to slow down.
For example, on the International Space Station (ISS), time goes slower than on Earth , but the effect is extremely insignificant, since the speed of the station is still relatively small. Time lag on the ISS is only 0.01 seconds for every year that has passed on Earth.
But what happens if you move at a faster speed?
Of course, the greater the speed, the more noticeable the effect of time dilation. Let’s take a time indicator of one hour (60 minutes) for a stationary object, the speed of which will be 0% of the speed of light.
- At 10% of the speed of light, one hour would “turn” into 59.52 minutes;
- At 20% of the speed of light, one hour “turns” into 58.70 minutes;
- At 30% of the speed of light, one hour “turns” into 57.20 minutes;
- At 40% of the speed of light, one hour “turns” into 55.00 minutes;
- At 50% of the speed of light, one hour will “turn” into 52.10 minutes;
- At 60% of the speed of light, one hour “turns” into 48.10 minutes;
- At 70% of the speed of light, one hour “turns” into 42.85 minutes;
- At 80% of the speed of light, one hour will “turn” into 36.00 minutes;
- At 90% of the speed of light, one hour “turns” into 26.18 minutes;
- At 92% of the speed of light, one hour “turns” into 23.52 minutes;
- At 95% of the speed of light, one hour “turns” into 18.71 minutes;
- At 99% of the speed of light, one hour would “turn” into 8.53 minutes;
- At 99.9% of the speed of light, one hour “turns” into 2.78 minutes;
- At 99.997% of the speed of light, one hour would “turn” into 1.17 minutes;
- At 100% of the speed of light, one hour will “turn” into 0 minutes.
Roughly speaking, a person traveling at 99% of the speed of light would experience a slowdown of almost seven times.
Suppose this person were to fly at this speed for a year, and when he returned to Earth, he would find out that seven years had passed.
If the same person accelerated to 99.9999% of the speed of light, then each year of his journey would turn into 70 years on Earth.
A year’s travel at 99.9999999% would take 2,236 years on Earth. At a rate of 99.9999999999%, a year will turn into 70,710 years on Earth.
Another year of flight at a speed of 99.999999999999999% of the speed of light will be 22,369,621 years on Earth!
It is worth accelerating to 100% of the speed of light and time no longer exists … tempting?
Unfortunately or fortunately, humanity does not have the technology to accelerate to such speeds.
NASA‘s Parker Solar Probe , the fastest spacecraft ever to study the Sun , was able to reach a speed of 692,018 kilometers per hour, or 0.06412% of the speed of light.
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