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My question is related to the first page of this article regarding the big bang theory and refers to this specific sentence:

Armed with the best physics of the 20th century, Albert Einstein came to very similar conclusions with his theory of relativity. Just consider the effect of mass on time. A planet's hefty mass warps time -- making time run a tiny bit slower for a human on Earth's surface than a satellite in orbit. The difference is too small to notice, but time even runs more slowly for someone standing next to a large boulder than it does for a person standing alone in a field. The pre-big bang singularity possessed all the mass in the universe, effectively bringing time to a standstill.

Considering that, here is my question: Does time actually run slower for a human standing next to a boulder? How does that work and how/where can I find out more?

Qmechanic
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Jacksonkr
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1 Answers1

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It does indeed. According to general relativity, time is affected by gravity; even the very small amount of gravity that is produced by a boulder has some effect on the passage of time. I will note that just being on Earth is going to have much more of an effect on the passage of time than whether or not a boulder is present. Even so, the change by the Earth's gravity is negligible.

I don't really know of anything to read on specifically something like this without just going into relativity, but there is this Wikipedia article that goes over it which isn't very long.

Daniel Underwood
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