Therefore, in winter, we turn the clocks back, whereas in summer, we turned them forward. On the other hand studies conducted by last year's Nobel Prize winners in medicine and physiology provide us with information about the workings of our inner, biological clock. They control the rhythm of the physiological activity of our organism and the activity of specific organs in the body. To experience that your circadian rhythm is real, just travel across a few time zones, e.g. go to America or Asia (what is known as jet leg) - your physiology will not be fooled by daylight. Also, the coming Sunday will provide another proof for their reality, when even the one-hour change should be quite noticeable.
Can we get the lost hour back?
Nevertheless, is it possible to get the lost hour back? What comes to our aid here is physics and the relationship between time and space referred to in the previous blog post. Gravitational time dilation is a phenomenon which has it that the farther from a gravitational field, the faster time moves. What follows is that the farther from the source, the less is spacetime bent, hence distances are shorter compared to points closer to the source where curving is the greatest. All this means is that a watch on the top of Mount Everest will be ahead of a watch at sea level and that Earth's mantle is about 2.5 years older than its core in the course of the milliards of years of our planet's existence (faster clock will tick away more years than a slower one).
Unusual spot on the face of the earth
The devil is in the detail, and in this case, in numbers. To make up for this lost hour, you would need to move deep into Earth and wait a while to get ahead of the time on Earth's surface by one hour. You may need to wait longer than it is going to take politicians to come to an agreement (even in Europe alone) and make our biological clocks happy by quitting the biannual change between winter and summer time.
Does it mean, however, that we should forget about gravitational time dilation? Well, it is more relevant than you would think. It must be accounted for if the global positioning system (GPS) is to perform accurately. Are satellites not at 20 000 km above the earth where time moves faster than on its surface? Hence, how accurately your smarthpone finds your location on the map is inextricably linked with one the consequences of the theory of special relativity.
Time for Einstein
Since you have already lost one hour, why waste any more of it? Wouldn't you rather invest the remaining time sensibly? Faced with shorter shuteye time, you may want to grab a book by Alan Lightman called 'Einstein's dreams'. It is a fascinating read hypothetical Einstein's dreams about the world where time is a shape-shifter. Nomen omen, Einstein is said to have dreamed them while working on special relativity. Well, I'd better be going now. Thank you for your attention and ... your time.
I referred to information on this website.
