Time moves faster on the tops of high buildings and skyscrapers, according to a study conducted by the University of Tokyo, cited by the Asahi Shimbun. The university developed high-precision clocks to run an experiment on the observation deck of the towering Tokyo Skytree.
The exact difference is four nanoseconds (nanosecond = one-billionth of a second) faster per day, compared to ground level, if time is measured at the altitude of 633 metres. The difference was measured with an atomic lattice clock created by professor at the University of Tokyo, Hidetoshi Katori. According to the study, the clock proved that measuring gravity at different altitudes reveals changes in the pace of time.
“People use clocks to tell the time, but they become an apparatus to measure time and space, such as the difference in altitude, in line with the theory of relativity,” Katori said.
The experiment at the top of the Tokyo Skytree became possible after Katori succeeding in reducing the size of the atomic clock, from a full room-sized device to something about the size of a household fridge. The high level of accuracy for the time difference confirmation is unprecedented. The professor suggested that the experiment is "a major step" toward a wider introduction of the atomic clock to society.
Previously, scientists also explored the difference between how time passes on GPS satellites and elsewhere in space, and at ground level. Einstein's GTR explains that the flow of the time is dependent on the strength of gravity at the location in which the measurement takes place.
