When Time Breaks Down

But do the individual components of the clock feel the same flow of time?

Down to the atoms and nuclei, yes.

The most accurate clocks in the world are the atomic clocks, which can drift by less than billionth of a second each day. All of the atoms in such a clock feel the same length of a second.

But what about quarks and the electrons?

This is where our conception of time starts to break down. Why? Because of the motion.

The flow of time depends fundamentally on motion. The faster an object moves relative to you, the slower its clock appears to tick.

A particle moving at the speed of light experiences no time. Its clock is frozen.

Those electrons and quarks bounce around at such high speeds inside the atom that they experience time very differently as compared to the atom itself. The most elementary particles are intrinsically timeless.

The familiar smooth flow of time only emerges as these particles are bundled into what we think of as matter.

Time happens for the atom in a way that it doesn’t for the atom’s parts.

Why does time depend on motion? Why are the light speed particles timeless?