RSAA Colloquia

Published in the Research School of Physics Event Horizon
Vol44 Issue43 28 October–1 November 2019

RSAA Colloquia / Seminars / Feast-of-Facts: Thursday, 31 October 2019, 11:00-12:00; Duffield Lecture Theatre

31 October​

Dr Peter J Riggs​

Time Dilation and Rates of Flow of Time​

The well-known time dilation effect from the Special Theory of Relativity is where the time interval between two events is shorter for a ’moving’ observer than for a ’stationary’ observer. One explanation of time dilation is that there is a physical flow of time which occurs at different rates for each observer. This explanation is quite common in non-technical accounts of time dilation despite the flow of time not being experimentally established. In this seminar, it will be shown how Special Relativity provides an interesting result concerning whether this common explanation can be consistently maintained.