Thinking about Einstein’s theory of General Relativity in relationship to Time. (1/27/2010)

The earth is in constant motion as it orbits the sun and the sun orbits the galaxy, and so on and so on. Because I am moving with the earth, I cannot detect that it is moving. If I were in a vacuum or in a free-fall, any movement I were to create, such as dropping a ball, would be perceived in an identical fashion as if I were to create the same movement while on Earth, in my co-orbit with the Earth. The perception of movement is therefor relative to the speed you are traveling.

It is theorized that time slows down the faster than you move. If you were to move at the speed of light, time travel could be possible.

If you were to spin any object at a consistent number of revolutions per time frame, and measure its speed at any point, you would find that the speed at a point closer to the center of the object would be slower than a point further from the center. This makes perfect sense, as the circumference of a circle increases as the radius increases. Being further from the center implies a larger radius, which implies a larger circumference. With an identical number of revolutions, a larger circumference point must move faster to rotate at the same rate as a smaller circumference point.

Therefor, if an object is at a higher altitude on the earth, it is moving faster than an object at a lower altitude. Therefor, at higher altitudes a person or other time measuring instrument would be moving faster and time would slow down. The degree to which this is happening could be measured by determining the change in radius, which would be the distance from the Earth’s center to a point at sea level, plus or minus any altitude.