# Anti- time dialation **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 19, 2002, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-time-dialation/119741 "2002-07-19T02:09:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2002, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-time-dialation/119741/1 "2002-07-19T02:09:22Z")
Relativity predicts a number of situations where time will pass more slowly for one person than another. But is there any way to make time go faster? ---
**Author:** ![Jonno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f19dbf/32.png) [@Jonno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonno)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2002, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-time-dialation/119741/2 "2002-07-19T02:33:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lumpy \* > \*\* But is there any way to make time go faster? \*\* Sure there is. Just have fun. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![peasea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc79bd/32.png) [@peasea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peasea)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2002, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-time-dialation/119741/3 "2002-07-19T03:17:11Z")
I guess it would be to travel slower (more slowly?) than the other guy. Whoever travels closer to the speed of light is ‘aging more slowly’. Of course, the difference in speed has to be pretty huge for the two to notice the time difference when they meet up again. A busybody isn’t going to live (noticeably) longer than a sloth because of Relativity. Cardiovascular fitness, maybe, but not Relativity. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2002, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-time-dialation/119741/4 "2002-07-19T04:34:19Z")
You could accelerate the entire rest of the Universe so that it’s moving and you’re not. Then, by any basis of comparison, time is going faster for you. ---
**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2002, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-time-dialation/119741/5 "2002-07-19T05:28:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Achernar \* > \*\*You could accelerate the entire rest of the Universe so that it’s moving and you’re not. Then, by any basis of comparison, time is going faster for you. \*\* By _any_ basis of comparison?? How do you know that? ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2002, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-time-dialation/119741/6 "2002-07-19T05:45:12Z")
By anything in the Universe, right? And how do you compare to something that’s not in the Universe? I guess I don’t understand what you’re asking. So, um, what did you have in mind? ---
**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2002, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-time-dialation/119741/7 "2002-07-19T05:56:18Z")
Hey, that was _my_ question! ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2002, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-time-dialation/119741/8 "2002-07-19T10:36:43Z")
[Why does faster-than-light travel violate causality?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=111857) I asked this related question a while ago. Check out the linked Web sites from that thread for an explanation of time and relativistic travel. ---
**Author:** ![JS\_Princeton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/57b2e6/32.png) [@JS\_Princeton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JS_Princeton)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2002, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-time-dialation/119741/9 "2002-07-19T16:44:06Z")
Here’s what you can do… put your twin in a spaceship, send her off nearly the speed of light for a few years and then have her return. Time went by much “faster” for you than it did for her. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2002, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-time-dialation/119741/10 "2002-07-19T20:22:26Z")
You know, that was my idea too, except you do it with the whole rest of the Universe. I’m still trying to figure out what’s wrong with it. ---
**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2002, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-time-dialation/119741/11 "2002-07-19T20:39:56Z")
Achenar It’s the whole rest of the universe that is causing the problem in the first place. By sending it packing, you’re causing yourself to experience time slower–just as if the universe had stayed put, and sent you packing. The results are the same, no matter how you phrase the problem. Some people say it’s a _general_ relativity thing. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2002, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-time-dialation/119741/12 "2002-07-19T20:59:53Z")
Naw, the “rest of the Universe” thing would work. You just have to arrange for the rest of the Universe to feel the acceleration, and you don’t. It might be a little difficult to get everyone else to cooperate, though. One thing that you can do is to go into orbit, which will spare you from the gravitational time dilation of the Earth. The Earth’s gravitational field is relatively weak, though, as such things go, so we’re only talking in the range of seconds per year, here. There’s no known way in Special or General Relativity to do any better than putting yourself in free-fall (i.e., in orbit). I don’t _think_ that it would violate any laws (causality should remain intact, for instance), but we just don’t know how. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2002, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-time-dialation/119741/13 "2002-07-19T21:02:34Z")
So, I can clearly send one person packing and it would work. Two people I assume is the same. Just how much of the Universe would I have to send packing before I’m the one experiencing the dilation? ---
**Author:** ![JS\_Princeton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/57b2e6/32.png) [@JS\_Princeton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JS_Princeton)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2002, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-time-dialation/119741/14 "2002-07-19T22:20:27Z")
You should read more deeply into some of the Twin Paradox threads, **Achernar**. Such time dilation effects occur specifically because something changes its frame of reference. You can ask for as many things as you want to change their frames of reference, but you gotta have a pretty big energy source or a long period of time to do it. ---
**Author:** ![JS\_Princeton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/57b2e6/32.png) [@JS\_Princeton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JS_Princeton)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2002, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-time-dialation/119741/15 "2002-07-19T22:25:33Z")
Clarification: the last “you” in my previous post should be a “they” ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2002, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-time-dialation/119741/16 "2002-07-19T22:48:44Z")
Thanks I will. I guess I still have a lot to learn about Physics. 😃 And thanks for spelling my name right! 🙂