Related papers: The twin paradox: the role of acceleration

We discuss a rather surprising version of the twin paradox in which (contrary to the familiar classical version) the twin who accelerates is older on the reunion than his never accelerating brother.

The accepted resolution of the twin paradox in relativity states that the age of the inertial twin `jumps' when the traveling twin undergoes his turn-around acceleration. This resolution is based on the use of the equivalent gravitational…

The twin paradox of the special theory of relativity has given rise to a large body of literature discussing its implications. In its standard form, the traveler changes velocity only at the destination of the trip, so that he appears to…

Twins travelling at constant relative velocity will each see the other's time dilate leading to the apparent paradox that each twin believes the other ages more slowly. In a finite space, the twins can both be on inertial, periodic orbits…

Relativistic rigid motion suggests a new version for the so-called `twin paradox', comparing the ages of two astronauts on a very long spaceship. Although there is always an instantaneous inertial frame in which the whole spaceship, being…

The famous twin paradox of the Special Theory of Relativity by Einstein (1905) is revisited and revised. This paradox is not a paradox in the true sense of a paradox but a reflection of a misunderstanding of the problem and the Principle of…

Conventional wisdom, based on kinematic (flat-space) intuition, tell us that a static twin is aging faster than his traveling twin brother. However, such a situation could be exactly inverted if the two twins are embedded in an external…

We discuss the twin paradox or the clock paradox under the small velocity approximation of special relativity. In this paper the traveller twin of the standard twin parable sets out with a non-relativistic speed for the trip leaving behind…

In the standard formulation of the twin paradox an accelerated twin considers himself as at rest and his brother as moving. Hence, when formulating the twin paradox, one uses the general principle of relativity, i.e. that accelerated and…

The twin paradox is the best known thought experiment associated with Einstein's theory of relativity. An astronaut who makes a journey into space in a high-speed rocket will return home to find he has aged less than a twin who stayed on…

We study the role of acceleration in the twin paradox. From the coordinate transformation that relates an accelerated and an inertial observer we find that, from the point of view of the accelerated observer, the rate of the differential…

In contrast to Newtonian physics, there is no absolute time in relativistic (Lorentzian) spacetimes. This immediately implies that two twins may, in general, age at different rates. For this to happen, there must be, of course, some…

The thought experiment (called the clock paradox or the twin paradox)proposed by Langevin in 1911 of two observers, one staying on Earth and the other making a trip toward a star with a velocity near the light velocity is very well known…

In this article, we present several apparent paradoxes of special relativity and their respective solutions. These paradoxes have appeared since the advent of relativity in 1905, and in fact they are never paradoxes. From a didactic point…

Some known relativistic paradoxes are reconsidered for closed spaces, using a simple geometric model. For two twins in a closed space, a real paradox seems to emerge when the traveling twin is moving uniformly along a geodesic and returns…

One of the most discussed peculiarities of Einstein's theory of relativity is the twin paradox, the fact that the time between two events in space-time appears to depend on the path between these events. We show that this time discrepancy…

An in-depth and mathematically-detailed analysis of Langevin's popular 1911 article on the special theory of relativity is presented. For the reader's convenience, English translations of large parts of the original French text are given.…

The clock paradox is analyzed for the case when the onward and return trips cover the same <<distance>> (as observed by the traveling twin) but at unequal velocities. In this case the stationary twin observes the distances covered by her…

A nomenclature for inertial frames and a notation for space and time coordinates is proposed to give an unambigous description of space-time experiments in special relativity. Of particular importance are the concepts of `base' and…

Despite being a major component in the teaching of special relativity, the twin `paradox' is generally not examined in courses on general relativity. Due to the complexity of analytical solutions to the problem, the paradox is often…