Our theory of relativity

An integral aspect of Einstein's cosmology is that time itself is not absolute but is relative to the observer.

That seems some pretty heady stuff. Actually, the concept is quite simple and can be observed daily, seen in the following examples:

a. Your field is creative design. Because of illness in the office, you are asked by your boss to step in and attend a seminar on cost accounting. The total time spent in the seminar and the workshops is eight hours.

b. You step into a nightclub at approximately midnight. You drink, dance and make plans for future encounters. You step outside and discover that it is now broad daylight. The total time spent in the aforementioned activities is eight hours.

That is, the time as recorded by an objective observer would be eight hours in both examples. But everyone who has had either of these experiences can tell you that activity "a" takes approximately 20 to 27 years in real time.

In activity "b", the real elapsed time varies between 39 minutes and 2.1 hours -- depending on the attractiveness of the participants and substances imbibed. None of this needs Einstein to explain.

Time, in fact, is self-evidently relative. Compare the passage of time in any two activities, for instance, having an impacted tooth extracted and making love (with or without an objective observer). Both, according to some criteria, might take exactly the same amount of time, but we all know that the subjective perception of the passage of time would be entirely different from what a stopwatch would record.

Any traveler knows time is relative geographically as well. Yet one significant occurrence that has not been completely analyzed is known as the ATM effect.

The ATM effect relates to the variation in the passage of time that occurs in equatorial countries. In countries within the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, time passes at a different velocity than it does in the temperate or frigid zones.

If someone agrees to meet you on a specific corner at say, noon, in Jakarta, that rendezvous has a zero percent chance of occurring at aforesaid time. The probability of its occurrence increases arithmetically each 15 minutes thereafter, but never actually reaches a point of certainty.

In temperate countries, the occurrence likelihood begins to register just before the scheduled time and increases exponentially for 15 minutes. After that, if the rendezvous has not occurred, the probability plummets to near zero, as one of the participants has likely died.

In Jakarta, if you cause someone to wait on the sidewalk for you for half an hour, at worst it might become uncomfortably hot.

In Montreal in January, that kind of tardiness would require you to enlist some help chiseling the waiting party loose from the lamppost he slumped against as he succumbed to hypothermia.

It's that different perception of time that also leads to the ATM effect here. At least three members of a family must pack into the booth and punch keys and insert and withdraw cards for at least 1/2 hour per participant. This causes time to dilate.

But observation shows this effect is not at all unexpected. The 23 people who arrive during the proceedings show not the slightest discomfort or surprise at waiting anywhere from 1.5 to 3.2 hours per transaction.

One's impatience therefore should not be put down to an example of a failure to become acclimatized to a culture. Nor should the ATM effect be considered indifference to one's fellow human beings.

The ATM effect should be seen for what it is; a simple example of the theory of relativity in action.

-- Patrick Guntensperger