Fewer seconds or shorter seconds?

  • B
  • Thread starter Kairos
  • Start date
  • Tags
    Seconds
In summary, the twin experiment shows that the traveling twin ages less than the static twin due to a shorter travel time, which is measured in seconds based on the definition of the cesium-133 atom. This difference in time can be explained by the relativity of simultaneity, time dilation, and length contraction, all encapsulated by the Lorentz Transformation. However, time dilation alone is not enough to explain the phenomenon, and the relativity of simultaneity should be considered first when trying to understand it.
  • #106
Ibix said:
they do not agree, at least not in the naive sense that you are assuming.
I used "during the flight" to shorten "somewhere between the spacetime point of separation and the spacetime point of reunion of the brothers". I am sure the brothers would have agreed on this term and that you also perfectly understood. The time elapsed on the brother's clocks between these points is the subject of the twin experiment.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
  • #107
Kairos said:
I used "during the flight" to shorten "somewhere between the spacetime point of separation and the spacetime point of reunion of the brothers". I am sure the brothers would have agreed on this term and that you also perfectly understood. The time elapsed on the brother's clocks between these points is the subject of the twin experiment.
If you tighten that up to be "in the intersection of the future light-cone of the separation event and the past light-cone of the reunion event" then I have no objection.

"Between" is rather more ambiguous than that.
 
  • #108
of course! thank you for this precision; unfortunately not always repected in the literature such as for example in reports on atomic clocks in airplanes in which I read "during the trip". It takes very long sentences to speak about relativity in this forum but fortunately equations are simpler (... provided their variables are clearly defined :wink:)
 
  • #109
Yes, write equations! Math is the only language adequate to express what one really means!
 
  • #110
vanhees71 said:
Yes, write equations! Math is the only language adequate to express what one really means!
and write words and draw diagrams (also aspects of Math) !

"A spacetime diagram is worth a thousand words."
 
Last edited:

Similar threads

Replies
31
Views
2K
Replies
20
Views
2K
Replies
55
Views
2K
Replies
25
Views
2K
Replies
98
Views
5K
Back
Top