Hahaha ... don't get me wrong ... I was using the word "spirited" in a good sense meaning a constructive and passionate exchange of ideas, thoughts and beliefs. Thats after all, what we're striving to achieve in this thread and judging by the responses, posts and compliments we must be heading in the right direction.
So well done, to all !
Now, why does time and it's apparent variability, be so obviously dependent on and inherently linked to velocity ... is a very good question and one that I have occasionally thought about ... though admittedly not too deeply.
Even with our constantly expanding knowledge and understanding of the universe and how it comes together and works, I still have this strong feeling deep down that we (our current physics, that is) have managed to miss something extremely significant and fundamental regarding space and energy.
It's as if we have somehow managed to work out how to construct sentences, paragraphs, even entire books without completely understanding how the basis of all this works e.g. the alphabet.
This next example is slightly off topic but illustrates my point strongly.
How we KNOW how something happens, can duplicate it BUT have absolutely NO idea HOW it works on a fundamental level.
I know (and any physics text book will tell you), that photons (including visible light) are created by electrons within the outer shell of an atom gaining energy (from another incoming photon) and moving to a higher energy level, then at some later time spontaneously dropping back to a lower level once more and in the process releasing that gained energy as a photon.
Simple, huh ? Not so fast .....
As far as I can tell, no one is able to explain the PRECISE mechanism by which the incoming photon and electron coordinate this energy transfer ... whether this energy transfer occurs IMMEDIATELY (no time involved) or whether it takes a measurable amount of time ... is there's a minimum distance between the photon and electron before energy exchage occurs ... does the photons energy get transferred gradually or in one hit ... how does the photon zipping past the electron at light speed affect the transfer ... does the electron jump between levels INSTANTANEOUSLY or is there a time invoved ... when the elctron drops to a lower level, what triggers the drop and what triggers the release of the stored energy ... what mechanism takes this released energy and how does it "build" a photon from it ... does the photon get built before, during or after the electron has dropped levels ... etc ... etc ... etc
Sorry to be so long winded but I wanted to use what is supposed to be an "understood" process in our physics to illustrate that deep down, we don't have a CLUE as to what the universe is actually doing and how it does it.
Back to your question ... sure we have Einstein, Lorentz, Maxwell and a host of others who've managed to MODEL (and incredibly sucessfully, mind you) some aspects of the way the universe works e.g. how time slows under extreme velocities right down to the nth decimal point .... but deep down in the nuts and bolts of HOW time slows under extreme velocities ... we're technological imbeciles !
I'm going to have to give further thought to your "simple" question
