Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Relatively speaking...

So I travel a lot for races, I mean a lot. I swear I can recite the safety warning in both english and french while sleeping (and I almost failed french 9), but this much air time has got me thinking. I am slightly younger because of it.

Relatively speaking someone who is traveling at speed compared to a reference point it experiencing time slower then the stable reference point. This dilation is the principle of relativity. Thus because I travel a lot, therefore I am traveling at a faster speed then someone on a stable reference point i.e the ground my biological clock is a fraction of a fraction behind the said reference points biological clock, however as stated the difference is so fractionally small it pretty much is obsolete. for negligible results I would have to be traveling at, you guessed it, relativistic speeds, i.e. a percentage of the "c" the speed of light. However even in an extremely small and arguably unimportant way I am younger the the average population.... this hit me after 30 hours of no sleep