Relativity by Russell Stannard

Author:Russell Stannard
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2008-12-14T16:00:00+00:00

The twin paradox revisited

Knowing now about the effects of acceleration/gravity on clocks, we revisit the twin paradox.

Earlier we described how the astronaut twin, having travelled to a distant planet, reversed the motion of her craft so as to return to base in order to carry out an unambiguous, side-by-side comparison of the two clocks. She did this by firing the rocket motors, so causing herself to undergo acceleration. In contrast, during the period of the craft's acceleration, the controller felt nothing. This is how the symmetry between the astronaut and mission controller was destroyed. The controller was, therefore, the only one who had obeyed the requirement of remaining throughout in an inertial frame. For that reason, only his calculation was valid, namely that it would be the astronaut twin who would come back younger than himself.

Assuming the distance travelled between the earth and the planet is h, and the speed of the craft is υ, then the time, tc, recorded on the controller's clock for the complete round trip was

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