1. Everything is Relative Written By: Rachel Ehrenberg, Sept. 24 By: Freddy Murillo Laurie Summers

2. What is the issue/ problem?  Who: James Chin-wen Chou and his colleagues at NIST (National Institute of Standards Technology)  What: Time dilation  When: September 24  Where: The test was held in a lab located in Boulder, Colorado.  Why: The team of physicists wanted to explore time dilation (speeding up or slowing down time), described by Einstein’s theories of relativity.  How: In the first experiment, the physicists placed 2 atomic clocks (that had an electrically charged aluminum atom) on 2 separate steel tables. One clock was on a table that was 33 centimeters taller than the other table. The clock on the shorter table ran slower than the one on the taller table. In the second experiment, the team applied an electric field, causing the aluminum atom to move back and forth. The moving clock ran slower than the nonmoving clock.

3. Magnitude of the Story  This article was local.  One point in this article said that time was affected for moving objects and objects that are elevated. The last paragraph states: “Every day, people are moving; they are doing things like climbing stairs. It’s interesting to think about — are frequent flyers getting younger [because they move so much] or aging faster [because they spend so much time in the air]?” This would affect many people who are concerned with staying young.

4. Reliability of the Source  This article was found at www.sciencenews.org.www.sciencenews.org  This was written by Rachel Ehrenberg.  The sources in the article are two physicists: Clifford Will, and James Chin-wen Chou.  The article is not biased.

5. Personal Reaction  We chose this article, because we thought that speeding up or slowing down time was interesting.  In the article, we think that the author could’ve explained how time dilation works a little better.  We have never heard of an issue like this before, so it didn’t really change our minds, but gave us a new perspective on the way time works.  We want to know how time dilation could be used, and if it happens in different scenarios other than moving or elevated objects.