What quantity did you change?
Labs / Physics
Time Dilation
Two identical light clocks tick side by side — one sits still, the other rides a ship. Drag the throttle to push the ship toward the speed of light and watch its photon trace a longer diagonal, so each tick takes the Lorentz factor γ times longer while the ship itself squeezes shorter along its motion.
Labs / Physics / Time Dilation
Time Dilation
Two identical light clocks tick side by side — one sits still, the other rides a ship. Drag the throttle to push the ship toward the speed of light and watch its photon trace a longer diagonal, so each tick takes the Lorentz factor γ times longer while the ship itself squeezes shorter along its motion.
Why it matters
Why explore this?
Physics explains how changes in forces, energy, motion, and matter produce results we can measure. This model lets you test one part of that relationship at a time.
Explore
Try the model
γ 1.15Δt 1.15 µsL 86.6 m
Investigate
Questions to test
Predict first, try it in the model, then use what you observe to answer.
What to try
- At 0.10 c the two clocks look almost identical — how fast do you have to go before the gap is obvious?
- What speed doubles the tick interval? Is it exactly halfway to c, or much closer?
- Why does the moving photon's slanted path take longer even though light always travels at the same speed c?
- Turn on Twin view and let it run: if the traveller comes home, who is younger, and by how much?
- Watch the length readout — at what γ has the ship shrunk to half its resting length?
Explain
Make sense of what happened
Name the quantity you changed, the quantity that responded, and the physical rule connecting them. Use a readout or visible change as evidence.
Check
Before you leave
What measurable result changed?
Which physical idea connects them?
If you can answer all three using evidence from the model, you understand the main idea. If not, return to Explore and change one setting at a time.