OK, so we know about time dilation (time appearing to go slower as you approach c).

So, I was thinking about it, and I realised: since temperature is a measure of kinetic energy, as you approach absolute zero, would time appear to go infinitely quicker?

I can't be bothered looking up the equations :P

E = MC²

WRONG APPLICATION! You fail Physics 102.

Although the speed of an electromagnetic wave through matter is can be up to 50% less than the speed through a vacuum, in 1999 scientists were able to greatly reduce the speed through matter in special situations.

Danish physicists performed an experiment where they slowed light down to only 38 miles per hour (about 57 km/hr) by sending a beam through a molecule made of sodium atoms cooled to near absolute zero (- 273 degrees C or - 460 degrees F). They achieved this low temperature by using lasers to slow down the atoms, through a special method used in quantum mechanics called the Bose-Einstein condensate.

Strictly speaking, that's not exactly relativity.

Light speeds down in a medium, that's what the refractive index measures. BEC's are really wierd, in that they're so condensed you can treat them as a single molecule, IIRC. that's bloody slow for light though :)

And ahmed, I know you know everything already, but this post was for those who don't.

templar: it's called relativity because it's all about relative motion. Time doesn't change for you as you move at different velocities - a clock moving with you would 'tick' at the same rate. If you then want to talk about absolute zero you are kinda mixing quantum and classical physics, which gets a lot trickier. Also, temperature is only a measure of average kinetic energy in an ideal gas.

sloanie: that's nice dear

ahmed: what does that have to do with the price of fish?

The answer is 42.

Dunno I copied it off some website.

It means you can fuck with time using temperature.

Then what is the question

[edit] grr ahmed got in the way

The question: If you have zero kinetic energy (in total i.e. your temperature is 0K), will time appear to pass infinitely quickly? (I know that it's an illusion, and it's only relative to your frame of reference etc. - I passed 150)

Ignore the fact you'd be dead etc.

The example Ahmed gave made me understand the concept relatively clearly, and although not really understanding much of this at all, isn't it a misunderstanding to think that time itself would slow down, as opposed to the objects within it just moving more slowly?

EDIT: I think you pointed this out above, I'm not entirely sure :hmm:

Ahmed's point is about something different. Light slows down when it travels in an (optically) denser-than-air/vacuum medium.

Relativity is about your perception of time. As you approach the speed of light, it appears to pass slower.

Well the best way to clarify this is with an example, say the twin paradox. One twin leaves on a space journey, travelling very fast, which appears to take five years to her. She comes back to earth and finds 50 years have passed (and her twin has aged 50 years, while she has aged 5). So you could say time "slowed down" for the travelling twin, but she just felt like 5 years went past.

You can't really talk about it like that. Temperature doesn't really come into it - especially at stage 1 (or even undergraduate) level. Since you seem to want to define temperature as the kinetic energy of your particles consider the fact that, for your system of particles, there is zero net translational motion - relative to you you are not moving. Hence time flows at the same rate for you and anyone at rest with respect to you, whatever their 'temperature'