If Einstein’s Theory of General relativity says that astronauts are in a different time frame than those on earth, how can we video chat with people on space stations? Is it because the space station has no velocity?
Answers
Answer:
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Explanation:
The space station is orbiting the Earth at a speed of approximately 7.8 kilometers per second. That is quite a respectable velocity, but insofar as relativity theory is concerned? It is next to nothing.
The time dilation associated with this velocity is about 0.34 parts in a billion. That is, over the course of a full year, the astronauts’ watches will fall behind by roughly one one hundredth of a second compared to terrestrial watches.
That is certainly not a difference that we would notice, nor does it interfere with our ability to communicate with the ISS.
However, although this difference is very small, it is certainly measurable using sufficiently accurate clocks and instruments. Indeed, gravitational time dilation, which is an order of magnitude smaller in this case, is also measurable. And while it does not interfere with our ability to communicate, these tiny corrections are important when it comes to using precisely timed signals for navigation, namely satellite positioning systems, such as GPS.
For relativistic time dilation to become sufficiently significant to be noticeable without instruments, much higher velocities would be needed. A musician with a good ear may be able to hear a difference in pitch amounting to about a quarter tone*. This amounts roughly to a 3% change in frequency. For relativistic time dilation to produce this much of an effect, a spacecraft would have to move at nearly the quarter of the vacuum speed of light. That would be nearly ten thousand times faster than the ISS. Mind you, this is kind of misleading, as the relativistic Doppler effect would be more significant than time dilation by itself, as at a mere 3% of the speed of light, the difference would become noticeable to that trained musician. But even that is still more than a thousand times the speed at which the ISS orbits the Earth.
*As I received several private comments on this point, let me clarify: I was referring to absolute, or perfect pitch in this answer. It is true that when you hear two pure sounds in rapid succession, you can distinguish a difference in frequency as small as 0.3%. But if I present two pianos, one of which is mistuned by less than a quarter tone, you may be able to tell that one of them is mistuned, but not which one. On the other hand, if the difference is a quarter tone or more (3% or more in frequency) a trained musician with perfect pitch can indeed tell which of the two pianos is tuned correctly, not just that one is mistuned.
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