The Science of Extreme Time Dilation in Interstellar

If you'd like to see more of this kind of video, consider supporting our work by becoming a member today!

0:00 Introduction
1:08 Recap of Einstein's relativity
2:14 Gravitational redshift
4:46 Time dilation in Interstellar
6:27 One second on Miller's equals one day on Earth
8:32 The problem with this extreme time dilation

PS: Due to copyright restrictions, several music tracks used in this video had to be substituted with tracks from the YouTube audio library.

--------------------------------------------

Script:

We touch upon the fundamentals of this topic from our previous video, about Einstein’s relativity. You can check out the video here, but just to give you a brief summary, we can say the following.
Under the influence of a strong gravitational field, time slows down. So if you’re just hanging out near a massive object, you will experience the effect of time going slower.  

But gravity isn’t the only thing that can warp time. According to another one of Einstein's theories, special relativity, time slows down for an object when it moves. Combining these two concepts together, we could consider this scenario.

Suppose that we walk up a flight of stairs. Our body is slowly moved away from earth, meaning that we will experience time going faster. But at the same time, since we are not stationary while going up, we should experience time going slower. So being farther from the pull of Earth's gravity causes our clock to tick faster, but moving “counteracts” this effect. Of course, this is all oversimplified.

Let’s consider two comparable cases. We have person A, floating nearby a massive object with a lot of gravity. And person B, just casually floating in an empty void of space. 
Person A shines a green laser beam toward person B. Because light is a form of vibration, the laser beam has a color that corresponds to 600 trillion vib/s. Now light is also a form of energy, and as that beam of light comes out of that gravity of the massive object, it loses a lot of energy. This loss means that there’s a decrease in frequency. 

So, by the time that beam of light reaches person B, its frequency will have decreased by some factor. That means that instead of the green light, at six hundred trillion vibrations a sec, person B gets only.. let’s say 10 billion vib/s. Which is a microwave radio beam. This phenomenon is called the gravitational redshift.

Individual wiggles don't just go anywhere and disappear. Since person A creates 600 trillion wiggles every sec, while person B only gets 10 billion every second, the only way this can happen is if one second on one astronaut’s clock is not the same as one second on the other astronaut.

In other words, it only takes one sec for person A to create those 600 trillion wiggles, but it will take 60,000 seconds, or nearly a day, for person B to receive them. So this is what happens. Our clocks run at wildly different rates. And by "clocks" I don't just mean mechanical or electronic devices, but also biological clocks, like your heart, your lungs, your brain, etc. 

Person A takes a breath, takes another breath, and measures a few seconds between the two. For him, everything feels normal. Clocks tick the way they are supposed to. On the other hand person B, watching person A through a telescope, sees everything in slow motion, with several days passing between the two breaths.

So now revisiting this scene again from #Interstellar, you should get a better understanding as to why Cooper says he will be the same age as his daughter by the time he comes back from the mission.

According to Einstein’s special relativity, the greater the acceleration of an object, the slower it will move through time. On Earth, where time is slowed by only a few microseconds per day, gravity’s pull is modest. And at the surface of a black hole, time is slowed to a halt, where the gravity is so humongous that nothing can escape.

In the movie, Miller’s planet is depicted to be present in the warped space, very close to a black hole Gargantua. Gravity’s pull on Miller’s planet is enormous. So if we apply Einstein’s relativity here, we would know that Miller’s planet would experience time at a very slow rate. But here on Earth, gravity is at a modest rate. And the gravitational force of the sun is also a billion times weaker than Gargantua. So people on Earth “experience time” faster than that of the three astronauts on Miller’s planet.

[BeeyondIdeas]

PS: Due to copyright restrictions, several music tracks used in this video had to be substituted with tracks from the YouTube audio library.

[someasiandude]

crazy to think that it has just been about 7.5 yrs since interstellar was released, which also means that just about an hour has passed on Miller's planet.

[IkanGelamaKuning]

A husband waiting for his wife shopping feels a very long time, while she feel only few minutes. A real time dilation.

[kojimayuhay]

The fact that the movie makers came up with the black hole’s design using an mathematical equation and a visual software engine is amazing, and on top of that, some years later the first photograph of a black hole was taken, and it looks hella similar to the movie one. Just amazing!!!

[rikweeds]

Man the fact they used the audio of the clock ticking on the planet to to represent the differential of earth time. This movie is a masterpiece

[zackv]

For every second at the DMV, 7 years passes on Earth.

[fernoramos]

As someone who grew up fascinated by outer space and our universe, interstellar will always be one of my all time favorite movies. I show it to everyone and explain the science behind everything 😂

[EL-ISS]

The soundtrack that plays during Miller's Planet has a tick tock sound of a clock.

Each tick is 1.25 seconds long. And one hour is 7 years back on earth. So the ticks actually represent one day passing on earth every 1.25 seconds.

The fact they detailed this movie so much that even the soundtrack represents a narrative is incredible.

[siddharthkumar]

Fun fact: To cause such a huge time dilation on Miller's Planet, a black hole(In this case Gargantua), needs to have 900, 000, 000 solar masses. And we have already found black holes like ton 618 and Phoenix A, which have 66, 000, 000, 000 solar masses!!

[puzzLEGO]

When doing a plank, for each second on earth one hour passes in the plank position

[natewyliestudios]

Interstellar was a masterpiece in my opinion and I love the attempt to be as accurate as possible in a theoretical sence for the science in the film to make it watchable but not too ridiculous, you rarely see that anymore.

[torontoBluejays]

Time dilation is one of the craziest things our species has ever discovered. I remember in the original Cosmos series, Carl Sagan gave the example of twins experiencing time dilation in a thought experiment. One twin would be kid and the other would be a 50 year old man depending on the gravitational force enacted on each of them.

It’s funny in certain areas of physics your mind just breaks down trying to comprehend some of these seemingly impossible realities.

I suppose if you know the math intuitively, you have some sort of a framework to grasp your mind around it.

[Spinksickles]

No matter how many videos, or someone explains it to me, this will always boggle my mind. Yet i'm always fascinated.

[bloodonmyface]

For Einstein to find this out while still living on earth is god level.

[frankieinjapan]

This easily became my favorite movie of all time. I love science fiction, but what I love even more, is plausible science fiction. Despite the obvious math problems, it made for an incredible movie. It's not like they were wrong as they were aware of the gravity problem, but it would've been a lot less interesting if they landed, turned to pancakes, and the movie ended haha

[daveelmes]

Whilst the planet itself is at 130% of earth's gravity, the effect of the extreme time dilation is from the black hole, not the planet. They don't experience the crushing gravity effect of the black hole whilst visiting the planet as Millers planet is in a stable orbit in continuous freefall around Gargantuan, so I think the movie is accurate during that scene.

[everydaycommentator]

I see very few comments stating this. The time dilation is not because of the planet's gravity, but because of its proximity to the black hole. I am assuming the planet's sun is in orbit around the black hole at an extremely high speed so as not to fall into it. The high gravity of the black hole along with the high speed creates the time dilation.

[sriramv]

Interstellar is a Combination of emotions and sci fi

[olliefoxx]

Me and my nephew watched this movie together. After it was over we just sat in our seats soaking in the enormity of the story and the science behind it. I'll never forget it. It put a smile on our face and another on our brain. A wonderful movie that inspired and perplexed at the same time.

[nateb]

Whenever I'm trying to get out the door as rush hour is approaching, I think of this part of the movie. "An extra 1 minute here is an extra 3 minutes of drive time!"