DIRECTIONS: As you read, answer the questions on a lined piece of paper:

Summarize the three main ways that time is relative.

Define the word, “relative” as it is used in this text.

Would time appear to move faster or slower if you were standing on the sun (assuming the sun wasn’t too hot to stand on!!)

To the best of your ability, explain what the author means by: “reality does not actually ‘move’ forward through time”.

THEORY OF RELATIVITY

The theory of relativity states that while time is real, it is relative to individual’s experiences. Individuals use the idea of time to structure their daily lives and view of history. However, reality does not actually "move" forward through time or space. Einstein proved that at an atomic level, the future is as real as the past or the present. He also proved that time seems to speed up and slow down depending on your speed or location in space. If you are moving faster than the speed of light then time will move slower. Similarly, time moves more quickly on planets that move faster around the sun and have stronger levels of gravity. For example, astronauts age faster when they travel closer to the sun, and slower when they travel farther from the sun, to areas with less gravity.

Another way that time is relative is that everyone “lives in the past” because it takes the brain 80 milliseconds to process what is happening in the present.

Finally, time feels different depending on your age. The more time we experience, the faster time appears to move. While one month is the majority of a toddler’s life, it takes up a small percent of a ninety-year-old woman’s life. Therefore, one month feels much longer for a toddler than an elderly woman.