Dimensions such as height, width, depth, and time increase the potential complexity of dynamic relations. For example, a dot can become a line with height, a square with width, a cube with depth, and a tesseract with time.
The warping of dimensions is performed through relations; or rather, the attractive byproduct of relations usually referred to as gravity. The density of local interactions directly correlates to the curvature of dimensions, and many state that gravity and space-time curvature are the same concept.
The Speed of Light is Fixed
The rules that govern the universe are assumed to be the same everywhere. One of these rules is that light travels at the fastest possible speed.
Light, traveling at a fixed speed, responds to gravity wells by changing frequencies. If sent toward an observer, frequencies take on a blueshift (gravity condenses it), and sent in the opposite direction they will lengthen to take on a redshift. This has profound implications on the passage of time.
Perspectives Sequence Events Differently
Imagine that two people are standing next to each other. At such a close proximity, they share the same present moment because light moves so fast that the difference in their perceptions is infinitesimal.
Next one person moves 186,400 miles away and shine a flashlight at the second person. Provided gravity does not redirect or trap the light, it will take approximately a second to reach the second person. Their present visual moment, relative to each other, is one second apart.
Now they move until they are three light-years apart. They agree to have a third party place two light bulbs at equal distances between them.
If the lights turn on at the exact same time, both people will respond that the light closest to them turned on first. They'll both be right from their perspective, but according to the universe they're both off by at least a year.
The sequencing of events is based on the vantage of the observer. This is because, understand this - this is because reality isn't the event, it's the awareness of the event.
Time is Affected By Gravity
The distortion of time sequencing may seem at first to be profound, and indeed it is, but the flow of time itself runs slower near massive bodies.
It all comes down to the speed of light, which is a constant. If the speed of light is constant then time must bend to accommodate it, and here is why.
Speed is a concept built on reference frames; namely, the reference frame of the measured object and the reference frame of the observer. The speed measured is rooted on the difference between these two vantages.
If a person stands still on a moving train then in their reference frame they are not in motion. That same person, viewed from somebody else standing on the ground outside, is in motion – their “speed” is faster. Light, however, is constant to all observers...
If the person inside of the train shines a light, the light will read at the same speed as it will to the person outside. This consistency in measurements is possible because the flow of time in a given reference frame is stretched as velocity increases. The person in relative motion experiences time as usual because they are within the distorted reference frame (we are all in distorted reference frames), but to outside observers at relative rest the traveler's actions would run at slower rate.
