B Is Time Dilation About Particle Motion Rather Than Time Itself?

[Dale]

So it seems speed is affecting matter not time.

There are a number of issues with that approach. @Ibix mentioned that it doesn’t explain the reciprocal nature of time dilation.

Another problem is that it requires a lot of unexplained coincidence. If it isn’t time then why does EM’s effect dilate the same as the strong force and the weak force and gravity?

But in my mind the biggest problem is that it is scientifically meaningless. If you cannot propose a specific experiment whose measured outcome would depend on the difference between “speed is affecting matter not time” vs “speed is affecting time” then nature doesn’t care about the difference between the two. If there is no possible experimental difference then the distinction is all in your mind and doesn’t describe anything about the universe.

 

[jbriggs444]

Traveling clocks slowed because the caesium atoms decay slowed down taking more time to tick the number of cycles we count to say one second has passed.

Atomic clocks stabilized using the hyperfine transition in caesium-133 do not operate by having caesium-133 atoms decay. The operating principle is not based on counting out caesium-133 half lives.

In a manner of speaking, it is not the transition rate that is important. It is the transition energy. Energy yields a time measure according to $E=h \nu$.

The official definition of the second was first given by the BIPM at the 13th General Conference on Weights and Measures in 1967 as: "The second is the duration of 9192631770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom." At its 1997 meeting the BIPM added to the previous definition the following specification: "This definition refers to a caesium atom at rest at a temperature of 0 K."[3]

It is no coincidence that this definition can be realized by constructing an atomic clock.

In a caesium beam frequency reference, timing signals are derived from a high stability voltage-controlled quartz crystal oscillator (VCXO) that is tunable over a narrow range. The output frequency of the VCXO (typically 5 MHz) is multiplied by a frequency synthesizer to obtain microwaves at the frequency of the caesium atomic hyperfine transition (about 9192.6317 MHz). The output of the frequency synthesizer is amplified and applied to a chamber containing caesium gas which absorbs the microwaves. The output current of the caesium chamber increases as absorption increases.

The remainder of the circuitry simply adjusts the running frequency of the VCXO to maximize the output current of the caesium chamber which keeps the oscillator tuned to the resonance frequency of the hyperfine transition.[46]

Paraphrasing... You have this chamber with a caesium gas. It is able to absorb microwaves corresponding to the hyperfine transition. You have this quartz oscillator that can be tuned slightly. You tune the oscillator so that it produces microwaves that are optimally absorbed by the caesium gas. The quartz oscillator is then your clock.

It is just like the clock in your smart phone. It has a quartz oscillator. It is just that the quartz oscillator in an atomic clock is stabilized using that clever caesium arrangement.

But all of the above is nothing but technical details. At the end of the day it is still a physical process. Time dilation affects all physical processes. As others have pointed out, whether it affects time itself or merely affects "all physical processes" is philosophical wool gathering, not science.

 

[FactChecker]

As others have pointed out, whether it affects time itself or merely affects "all physical processes" is philosophical wool gathering, not science.

Occam's razor: When presented with competing hypotheses about the same prediction, one should prefer the one that requires the fewest assumptions.
It's not a law of logic, mathematics, or physics; it's just a preference for simplicity and testability.

 

[jbriggs444]

Occam's razor: When presented with competing hypotheses about the same prediction, one should prefer the one that requires the fewest assumptions.
It's not a law of logic, mathematics, or physics; it's just a preference for simplicity and testability.

Brevity is the soul of wit