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Gravitational time dilation is a form of time dilation, an actual difference of elapsed time between two events, as measured by observers situated at varying distances from a gravitating mass. The lower the gravitational potential (the closer the clock is to the source of gravitation), the slower time passes, speeding up as the gravitational ...
In general relativity, a geodesic generalizes the notion of a "straight line" to curved spacetime. Importantly, the world line of a particle free from all external, non-gravitational forces is a particular type of geodesic. In other words, a freely moving or falling particle always moves along a geodesic.
The dashed line is the spacetime trajectory ("world line") of the particle. The balls are placed at regular intervals of proper time along the world line. The solid diagonal lines are the light cones for the observer's current event, and they intersect at that event. The small dots are other arbitrary events in the spacetime.
In this animation, the dashed line is the spacetime trajectory ("world line") of a particle. The balls are placed at regular intervals of proper time along the world line. The solid diagonal lines are the light cones for the observer's current event, and intersect at that event. The small dots are other arbitrary events in the spacetime.
For example, the Schwarzschild radius of the Earth is roughly 9 mm (3/8 inch), whereas a satellite in a geosynchronous orbit has an orbital radius that is roughly four billion times larger, at 42 164 km (26 200 miles). Even at the surface of the Earth, the corrections to Newtonian gravity are only one part in a billion.
This means that rather than having a grid of straight lines, the grid instead has curvature. A good example of this is the surface of the Earth. While maps frequently portray north, south, east and west as a simple square grid, that is not in fact the case. Instead, the longitude lines running north and south are curved and meet at the north pole.
From an engineering standpoint, after the launch of the Global Positioning System (which depends on general relativity for its proper functioning [9]) and its integration into everyday life, gravitational redshift/time dilation is no longer considered a theoretical phenomenon requiring testing, but rather is considered a practical engineering ...
In 2010, Chou et al. performed tests in which both gravitational and velocity effects were measured at velocities and gravitational potentials much smaller than those used in the mountain-valley experiments of the 1970s. It was possible to confirm velocity time dilation at the 10 −16 level at speeds below 36 km/h. Also, gravitational time ...