That which a gentleman does not ask of a lady...
Age – the current
temporal
extent
of an object. The age of an object could be read from a clock that had
accompanied that object on its path through spacetime, its
worldline.
The age of an object is clearly not the age of the basic material from which
the object is made, it must be calculated from the time that the basic material
was arranged into a form recognizable as the object in question.
Not only is the starting time of an age a bit uncertain, but the speed with
which time passes is different for objects which experience different
accelerations or gravitational fields. That is why true age is only displayed
on a clock that has accompanied the object throughout its existence.
Suppose we have a helium atom. The nucleus is composed of
four baryons, two dressed up as neutrons and two dressed up as protons. The
whole assembly is held together by the strong nuclear force, one of the four
fundamental forces of nature, the others being gravity, electrostatic and weak
nuclear. The baryons have existed since the Big Bang but their assembly into a
helium nucleus has been a relatively recent event. Prior to coming together in
the nucleus the baryons had different relativistic histories so it would be
very unlikely that they would all be the same age.
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