Saturday, September 25, 2010

Your Home's Height Affects Your Age





National Geographic reports that you'll age slightly faster on a higher altitude.

It's because of the time-bending effects of the theories of relativity. Special relativity predicts time flows at an unsteady rate and also says that acceleration affects time. So, a clock speeding away from an observer will appear to tick slower than a stationary clock. Relativity also predicts that gravity also affects time - the stronger the gravity, the slower the time. Gravitation pull on an object increases closer to the center of mass, so an object on Earth's surface experiences a slightly stronger pull than one floating in the atmosphere.

But don't go buying homes underground. Over a 79-year lifetime, you'd only add ~90 billionths of one second to your life if you moved to lower ground.

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