dcbingaman
- Joined Jun 30, 2021
- 1,065
There is one important difference: The twin in the space ship finds that the distance to the star he is traveling to instead of being say 10 light years away is 1 light year away. This is due to both length contraction and time dilation. (Making up the numbers but you get the idea). That is the universe is flatter in the direction of travel. So he calculates two years to get to the star turn around and come back while the twin on earth finds he takes 20 years to get to the star, turn around and come back. There is no universe contraction for the twin on earth but only for the twin in the space ship. Thus 20 years goes by on earth but the twin in the space ship states that 2 years went by. I am assuming he is traveling like at 90% of c. The exact numbers are a little different but that is the idea.===============================
The twin flying away sees the supposed stationary's clock of his twin on earth to run slower than his, no matter which direction he moves..... so why he is surprised when he arriving on earth finds out he was wrong. He is a nut first to question his own observation and worse yet finds out it is false and that it was his own clock that was running slower.
I agree with you.
The other major difference is the twin in the space ship finds that not only is the clock on earth running slower but every clock in the entire universe is running slower. The twin on earth observes no such effect for the entire universe but only for the twin in the space ship. That is also a significant difference between the two.
Because of this there is no twin paradox issue: the one in the space ship and the one on earth both say the others clock is running slow. That is not a problem because the twin in the space ship thinks the clock on earth ran slow for only 2 years while the twin on earth thinks the clock in the spaceship ran slow for 20 years. That washes out and no issues in that case.
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