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- Path: sparky!uunet!gatech!hubcap!ncrcae!ncrlnk!ncrstp!npdiss1!preece
- From: preece@npdiss1.StPaul.NCR.COM (Bently Preece)
- Newsgroups: sci.physics
- Subject: Re: Twin Paradox
- Message-ID: <1496@npdiss1.StPaul.NCR.COM>
- Date: 27 Jul 92 17:29:24 GMT
- References: <BrJIqF.AEu@well.sf.ca.us> <147bktINN2l6@smaug.West.Sun.COM> <BrKppo.5Au@well.sf.ca.us> <83827@netnews.upenn.edu>
- Reply-To: preece@npdiss1.StPaul.NCR.COM (Bently Preece)
- Organization: NCR Network Products Division, St. Paul MN, USA
- Lines: 35
-
- In article <BrKppo.5Au@well.sf.ca.us>, metares@well.sf.ca.us (Tom Van Flandern) writes:
-
- Earlier I posed a symmetrical version of the twins paradox:
-
- also Richard.Mathews@West.Sun.COM (Richard M. Mathews) replied:
- > What's your paradox?
-
- Nonetheless there is a problem here
-
- Please excuse me from interrupting your discussion -- I'm just an
- ignorant computer nerd -- but someone has missed something, and
- that someone might be me.
-
- If all distances were given in the Earth frame, then the 4 light
- years between T1 and T2 would be contracted from the distance which
- T1 and T2 measure. That is, T1 and T2 would think they were actually
- 28 light years apart. And similarly, T1 and T2 would see the 4
- light-year distance between Earth and Alpha Centauri contracted to
- only 4/7 light years.
-
- Earth and T1 would agree that T1's clock reads 4/7 years (close enough)
- when T1 reaches Alpha Centauri, but Earth would think it's because T1's
- clock is running 1/7 speed, while T1 would think that Alpha Centauri
- is only 4/7 light-years away.
-
- Similarly, Earth and T1 would agree that Earth's clock reads about
- 4 years when Earth reaches T2. Earth would think T2 is 4 light years
- away. T1 would think Earth traveled 28 light years, but that Earth's
- clock is running slow.
-
- --
- -------------
- Bently Preece NCR Network Products Div.
- software engineer 2700 Snelling Ave. N.
- b.preece@StPaul.NCR.COM St. Paul, MN USA 55113
-