Comic Transcript

Panel 1.
Alkina: We have arrived at our destination.
Professor Ahmix: Can we get any closer to the black hole?

Panel 2.
Epo: Inadvisable. My shields will not protect us from x-ray radiation if we get any closer.

Panel 3.
Alkina: Epo, please zoom in to the black hole and launch a probe to examine it closer.

Panel 4.
[probe is launched]

Panel 5.
Alkina: Epo, display probe’s chronometer.
Professor Ahmix: The effect of time dilation on the probe is clearly visible as it accelerates towards the black hole.

What does it mean?

Chronometer – A watch that has been specifically designed to keep very accurate time.

Time dilation – is the name given to the phenomenon by which a clock closer to a massive object, like a black hole, will run slower than an identical clock that is farther away. This type of time dilation is predicted by Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity and has been tested successfully by flying a chronometer on an airplane and testing the effect against an identical clock that was left stationary on the ground.

Another type of time dilation occurs when a clock is moving with respect to an observer. In this case the observer will see the moving clock tick slower than the clock that is stationary with respect to the observer. This type of time dilation is predicted by Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity and has also been tested with great accuracy.

Is that all?

Gravitational Time Dilation – A Non-Mathematical Proof of Gravitational Time Dilation.

Relativity : the Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein – free ebook versions of Einstein’s book on Special and General Relativity. This ebook is for advanced readers.