Blessed May Pastrana  

  HUMSS 12-B
PHYSICAL SCIENCE - Week 3-4

Activity 1.1 The Twin Paradox

 In the Twin Paradox, one twin stays on earth while the other travels outside the solar
system and back at great speed. The traveling twin returns to find that he has aged less
than his brother who stayed home. It is an intriguing thought experiment, because it
seems to violate two accepted principles of modern physics: (1) nothing can travel
faster than light; and (2) all observers see the same laws of physics in action. Despite
its many years of popularity, however, it turns out that the Twin Paradox is not a valid
scenario for several reasons. First, it contradicts Einstein's theory of special relativity
which forbids superluminal velocities. Second, there are hidden assumptions about
simultaneity which are known to be incorrect because they were fixed in an inconsistent
way when Lorentz first introduced his contraction hypothesis in order to account for time
differences between moving observers (he assumed that moving clocks tick more
slowly).

 However, this scenario can be resolved within the standard framework of special
relativity: the traveling twin's trajectory involves two different inertial frames, one for the
outbound journey and one for the inbound journey. Another way of looking at it is by
realizing that the traveling twin is undergoing acceleration, which makes him a non-
inertial observer. In both views there is no symmetry between the space-time paths of
the twins. Therefore, the twin paradox is not actually a paradox in the sense of a logical
contradiction.

 Starting with Paul Langevin in 1911, there have been various explanations of this
paradox. These explanations "can be grouped into those that focus on the effect of
different standards of simultaneity in different frames, and those that designate the
acceleration [experienced by the traveling twin] as the main reason". Max von Laue
argued in 1913 that since the traveling twin must be in two separate inertial frames, one
on the way out and another on the way back, this frame switch is the reason for the
aging difference. Explanations put forth by Albert Einstein and Max Born invoked
gravitational time dilation to explain the aging as a direct effect of acceleration.
However, it has been proven that neither general relativity nor even acceleration, are
necessary to explain the effect, as the effect still applies to a theoretical observer that
can invert the direction of motion instantly, maintaining constant speed all through the
two phases of the trip. Such observers can be thought of as a pair of observers, one
traveling away from the starting point and another traveling toward it, passing by each
other where the turnaround point would be. At this moment, the clock reading in the first
observer is transferred to the second one, both maintaining constant speed, with both
trip times being added at the end of their journey.