Over a century ago, the general relativity theory of Einstein revolutionized how humanity understood the entire universe. Ever since then, specialists have found out that time's movement is hardly steady and stable. According to Live Science, one of the theory's premises and implications is that time flies by at a faster pace at the high-level areas across the world compared to how it flows when at the bottom.
Altitude and the Strength of Gravity
Such a boggling phenomenon occurs because when a particular object has closer proximity to earth, the gravitational forces have stronger effects. Einstein's theory holds that gravity is a warping of both time and spice. Because of that, the movement of time is slower at areas with higher altitude levels and consequently, that are farther from earth. In such cases, gravity has lesser impacts.
Hence, if there is a significant connection between time and gravity, does this mean that those who stay at mountaintops get old faster compared to those who stay in sea-level areas?
Does Gravity Slow Aging?
Live Science notes how physicist James Chin-wen Chou from the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) shared that for things that are distant from fields of gravity, like earth, time passes by quite slower. This, in turn, means that those who stay in areas with higher altitudes have faster aging compared to those moving through time in space at sea level.
Chou expresses how gravity makes aging slower in a relative sense. He notes how in comparison to a person who is not close to any enormous object, humans have a slower aging rate, though the differences are only minute.
Milliseconds' Worth of Differences in Age
Such differences are minor but they are quantifiable. Live Science notes that if one were to stay at Mount Everest's top, roughly 8,848 MASL, for around 30 years, this person would be older by 0.91 millisecond compared to if this person spent the same 30 years at low altitude. This was noted by the NIST.
In similar cases, if twins who stayed at sea levels separated for 30 years, with one staying put while the other staying in Boulder, Colorado which is around a mile high, the twin staying in the elevated area will be older than the other twin by 0.17 millisecond.
A study published in Nature was conducted by NIST researchers. As part of their procedures, the specialists utilize one of the world's most accurate atomic clocks to reveal how time flies faster above the surface of earth.
Physicist and study author Tobias Bothwell expressed how these weren't just calculations, but that they were able to witness ticking changes in the clock at a gap that is around a person's hair width.
Live Science notes that it is key to understand that space-time has four dimensions that are interrelated through three different coordinates across space and one coordinate pertaining to time. Relatively speaking, gravity is the term to describe the condition when any particular item that has mass gets distorted within such tapestry. It then curves time and space singularly.
Space-time, specifically, becomes distorted when it is within the parameters of an item that has mass. This leads to bending space and dilating time.
Such a phenomenon, referred to as gravitational time dilation, may be messy, however, in unusual situations. According to astrophysics professor Andrew Norton, GPS satellites that surround the earth with an altitude of around 20,186 km must adapt to the reality that their clocks are 45.7 microseconds quicker compared to the world's clocks.
That being said, gravity indeed affects aging. More specifically, it makes people age slower, even by just milliseconds.
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