Twins paradox Definition and 44 Threads

In the Twin Paradox, I don't understand how it can be determined which of the two is moving and therefore which is the younger. What I realised is that the fact that the Earth is not an inertial system is irrelevant: just consider a planet that is stationary in an inertial system and start the...

I have been looking through some of the threads about the twins paradox in relativity. It’s clear there’s a lot of confusion on this, and I am yet one more person very confused on this. So I was thinking about a hypothetical experiment, and I will lay out my hypothesis of what might...

In a thread I started awhile back, in the common twins paradox scenario, it was indicated to me that the actual time (paraphrasing) on Earth for any given time in the ship is basically “undefined” (as it can’t be verified) and/or time dilated (ticking slower) for the trip out and then shifted to...

Okay, so if two identical twins put on a heart rate monitor that after let's say 400 million beats were detected (at 80bpm that's about 10 years) the monitor killed them. Now one gets in a spaceship and the other stays on earth. The one in the spaceship travels at say 95% of the speed of light...

Hello, I'm a beginner on SGR and I'm struggeling with this, probably, simple problem. I'm interested on exploring Field Theory ( relativistic) so I started reading http://www.elegio.it/mc2/LandauLifshitz_TheClassicalTheoryOfFields_text.pdf which was suggested and reccomended by a PF's member...

Does the “space twin” benefit from length contraction as well as time dilation? In Einstein’s thought experiment, let one of twins travel to a galaxy known to be 10 light years from Earth at a speed of sixty percent of light speed (0.6c). Were it not for time dilation the one-way trip would...

Homework Statement In the twins paradox, suppose that Florence begins at rest beside Methuselah, then accelerates in Methuselah’s x-direction with an acceleration a equal to one Earth gravity, “1g”, for a time ##T_F/4## as measured by her, then accelerates in the −x-direction at 1g for a time...

Assume A and B are at rest on Earth initially. Then B travel to to one light year far away from Earth with an extremely low speed (even slower than a car). So I can assume their ages are the same after B has arrived, right? Then, B returns to Earth with an extremely fast speed (~0.9c) and A and...

Dear PF Forum, After all these post'. I want to know that my understanding of twins paradox is close enough. So, Green travels, Blue stays. Blue keeps sending signal, Green bounces the signal. Doppler factor = 1/4, so ##\frac{1}{4} = \frac{1-v}{1+v}; v = 0.6## And at event T0 (from B), Green...

So I was recently reading Stephen Hawkings' "The Universe in a Nutshell" and came across the famous Twins Paradox thought experiment. My question is, since motion is relative, couldn't we extrapolate that either the observer on Earth is stationary and the rocket is traveling near light-speed...

Dear PF Forum I want to know about these questions that are still bothering me, Does the universe have preferred frame of refference? Why there's twins paradox? Motion is relative, why 1 clock experiences time dilation while the other doesn't? V = \sqrt\frac{3}{4} ≈ 86.6\% If V define ratio of...

Dear PF Forum, I have a tought experiment here. I'm asking about twins paradox, but instead of using twins, I'm using clocks to lock them up in a closed room. Sort of Einstein elevator. (unlike Schrödinger, even in tought experiment, I can't imagine locking human being -- or cat -- in a closed...

I've read different reasons for the reciprocal illusion experienced by the twins (the slow-motion effect). I've not been able to understand the reason that the traveling twin would see the earthbound twin moving in slo-mo. Can anyone offer a simple explanation -- or is there actually no...

We’ve all seen this little fellas up there. Two brothers, twins, in their 60’s. And they decide that one of them is going to take a trip into space, let’s say for a year, at 99% the speed of light. The other brother stays there, waiting for his twin to return, and looking at the light clock that...

I have already read about the twins paradox a lot of times, but what puzzles me is that how the Universe would "now" what twin had to be younger since, if the spaceship travels at high speed in relation to Earth, the planet would move the same with the ship as reference.

Hi, from what I understand about the twin paradox, Is the resolution essentially that since the traveling twin undergoes acceleration when the ship reverses direction, so since the velocity of the twin is no longer constant, the inertial reference frames are no longer valid? Then does that also...

Everyone knows that paradox. In true we can say who person is standing,so If we say that the person in Earth is standing,then the clock of astronaut will run slower. Else,if we say that astronaut is standing and that Earth is moving,we see the clock of Earth's person to run slower. So in true...

I'd like someone to confirm whether I am on the right track here. Most formulations of the twin paradox involve a sharp turn-around with infinite acceleration. I suppose that there is an SR-only description of a non-infinite acceleration - a kind of 'smooth' version of the twin paradox. But my...

Hi All. Layman question. In the twin's paradox, why one of the brothers is older when they meet again?. if movement is relative. What determines which of them ends up older? Hope i explained myself. Thanks.

Hi, I did a search for "crackpot physics" and found https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=111647 and then this forum. A friend of mine found some strange twins paradox on the net but he can't remember where. Neither of us can figure out the solution, but it must be crackpot...

While attempting to wrap my head around the classical Twin Paradox, I asked myself the following. So far I have not been able to reach a well reasoned answer... which is no big surprise. :) Twins (A and B) are oriented in space such that A could be said to be standing on B but facing in the...

The twin who has left Earth and travels close to the speed of light in his spaceship, lands back on Earth only to find everyone has died of old age thousands of years ago. This I'm told is because the perception of time and time itself, within the inertial frame of reference of the spaceship...

"The confusion that arises in problems like Example 26.1 lies in the fact that movement is relative: from the point of view of someone in the pendulum’s rest frame, the pendulum is standing still (except, of course, for the swinging motion), whereas to someone in a frame that is moving with...

I have read many arguments concerning the issue of the famed “Twin Clock Paradox”. Very many arguments go through considerably complex explanations so as to defend Special Relativity or dispute it. But the explanation is actually much simpler. In every proposed twins paradox, there is a Frame...

Reverse Twins paradox ? This may have come up before but I haven't seen it and don't know the answer. What if the twins started out in two ships moving together at relativistically significant velocity relative to earth. One of the twins then simply goes to Earth and back while the other...

Why do most explanations of the Twins Paradox claim that the twin on the spaceship ages less because he is the one who undergoes acceleration and/or changes direction, causing asymmetry between the points of view of each twin? It seems clear to me that the twin on the spaceship would age less...

I am having trouble understanding how the explanation of the paradox solves the problem. What if people in two different frames were moving wrt one another with constant velocity. Say for instance, these people never turn around to meet up once again and are constantly moving at a constant...

Hello, I'm reading through my textbook and it claims the explanation for the twins paradox is that the space-traveler must experience acceleration during his journey... but could it not be said that, relative to him, the rest of the universe is accelerating in the opposite direction?

Regarding the twins paradox: do all closed trajectories require nonzero acceleration at some point, or can a closed geodesic fulfill overall the special relativistic requirement of constant velocity?

I am having trouble understanding how the explanation of the paradox solves the problem. What if people in two different frames were moving wrt one another with constant velocity. Say for instance, these people never turn around to meet up once again and are constantly moving at a constant...

Why do most explanations of the Twins Paradox claim that the twin on the spaceship ages less because he is the one who undergoes acceleration and/or changes direction, causing asymmetry between the points of view of each twin? It seems clear to me that the twin on the spaceship would age less...

imagine that two spaceships are far away from each other,both at rest,then one of them accelerate to nearly C towards the other,assume that after the accelerating process,their clocks are just the same,when their distance is almost 0(no decelerating),they change the infermation,then what will...

The Schwarzschild Metric on a spatial plane passing through the center of a spherically symmetric (non-spinning) center of gravitational attraction is: d \tau^2 = (1- \frac{2M}{r})dt^2 - \frac{dr^2}{(1- \frac{2M}{r})} - r^2d \phi^2 If there are two spaceships at a distance r_1 from a...

A PBS program said that the theory of general relativity holds acceleration and gravity observationally equivalent. (Einstein's space elevator example was given.) Here is a thought experiment based on that mental picture. A "gravity switch" will make the following thought experiment easier to...

Hi, I'm a Biology teacher, constantly getting into discussions with the physics teachers at my school regarding the effect of traveling at speed on ageing. They have explained to me (countless times) all the examples and experiments that show that time passes more slowly for objects traveling...

I'm an "on-my-own-free-time" arm-chair student of physics. Lol. So if this question is way off the mark my apologies. Feel free to let me know where I’m off base. Anyway... For me, a great visual example of the twin paradox was found at this site...

If the universe was closed and such that if one continued in a straight line they would arrive where they began eventually. Wouldn't the twins paradox still be a paradox as neither party is accelerating (are they?) and this would prove that such a universe doesn't exist?

Twin A is at rest with respect to Twin B who is traveling close to c and after taking off for a bit Twin B turns and returns to earth. Now the thing that I am wondering is what does each twin observe during the whole trip. I might have it wrong and that's why I made this thread. Lets say...

Paradox was verified by Hafele-Keating in 1971. They placed atomic clocks in commercial airplanes and then compared to a reference clock. Recently some people/groups are considering their data as questionable & unreliable. Does somebody know later experiment that also verified the paradox in a...

Does someone have any opinion regarding the following paper attending to prove that Hafele & Keating experiment (that actually verified the time distorsion caused by speed & gravitation in General relativity) to be highly unreliable? Hafele & Keating Tests; Did They Prove Anything? A. G...

why is it a paradox? it makes sense to me.

hi all i m new to this forum but would like to know a lot abt relativity. I read through a dialogue in one of the threads on twins paradox. What exactly do you mean by saying one of the twins will be younger than the other? As far as i understand biologically neither of them is younger. Pls...

the twins paradox It is true that the one that traveled is younger, is this a fact or it is a paradox

Okay, everyone knows about the twins paradox, you know one twin flies around near the speed of light in a spaceship or whatever and when he comes back he's 50 years younger than his twin brother. Well... according to relativity you can reverse any motion and say that the universe is passing by...