As you may know from my biography, I used to be an executive at one of the world’s largest corporations. And as you can tell from my posts, I’m a bit of a science geek. So how am I going to tie these two disparate thoughts together? Well, a few years ago, I was late for a meeting. The man I was meeting was my friend’s father, and he began to upbraid me for my tardiness. Truth be told, he wouldn’t have gone after me about it if it weren’t for the family friendship. I decided to have a little fun with him and said, “Well, Gary, like your son, Einstein, and other great minds, I know that time is relative.” He didn’t think it funny at the moment, but after his ire settled, he saw the humor.

Well, guess what! Scientists have now found an even more bizarre aspect of the relativity of time having a correlation to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. According to Heisenberg, at the subatomic level, where units of matter have both the properties of particles and waves, there is only so much that can be known. This is because the act of measuring the phenomena actually imparts attributes to it.

Well, it appears that the same principle applies to time. Physicists from the University of Austria and the Austrian Academy of Sciences have proved a fundamental limitation to our ability to measure time. They showed that the very act of precisely measuring time by one clock, blurred the measurement of time as experienced by clocks placed nearby. Yes, you read it correctly: the very act of pinpointing time by one clock caused the passage of time to blur for surrounding clocks.

Einstein’s theory of General Relativity states that the flow of time can be affected by other properties of the universe, such as mass, gravity, and energy. Scientists have seen the effect of gravitational time dilation in the cosmos, but the Austrian team is the first to see it at the subatomic level. While the observation is straight Einstein, the physicists needed to find a reason for the time dilation in the terms of Quantum Mechanics, the theory that defines interactions at a subatomic level. To their minds, the high energy associated with the precision of measurement, increases the level of uncertainty in the surrounding flow of time. This uncertainty is recorded in clocks near the very precise timepiece.

How does this apply to the meeting I was late for all those years ago? I wasn’t late at all! Gary’s incredible precision in measuring time must have caused the time around me to blur. Clearly science shows that my appearance of lateness was a direct result of his excessive preoccupation with precision! Come to think of it, I’m sure the same applies when I appear to miss a deadline with my publisher. Rarely do I find the repercussions of quantum physics to have such a profound impact on my day-to-day life.

The science is real, but of course my spin is a joke. When you calm down, you’ll think this is funny too, Gary!

See the time article of pionic.org for more info.