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From: john@frog.UUCP (John Woods, Software)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: Unified Field Theory and space trav
Message-ID: <271@frog.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 21-Nov-85 12:08:02 EST
Article-I.D.: frog.271
Posted: Thu Nov 21 12:08:02 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 24-Nov-85 06:32:49 EST
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Organization: Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA
Lines: 28

>>OK,lets rephrase the question.  The two twins get into identical space ships
>>and accelerate at the same amount but in opposite directions.  What do they
>>observe about the other?
>When and how do they do the observing?  Special Relativity states firmly that
>"simultaneous" is a meaningless word at any distance.  To get the twins to
>agree on timing, you will have to get them back together again.
> 				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
>
To use the standard example, each twin has a radio transmitter that emits
a tick every second.  Each twin has a receiver which counts the times between
the other twin's ticks.  Because the twins are separating, you expect a
certain increase in time between ticks, because the radio pulse has slightly
farther to travel each time.  However, Relativity predicts that after you take
that into account, each twin will perceive the other twin's ticks as being
slower than the clock of the receiving twin.

I recently read Bertrand Russell's book, "Relativity", and enjoyed it quite a
bit.  Though I already knew the equations of Relativity (the simpler ones,
anyway, I didn't delve deeply into it in college), his book gave me a great
deal more insight into *why* the equations really work.


--
John Woods, Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA, (617) 626-1101
...!decvax!frog!john, ...!mit-eddie!jfw, jfw%mit-ccc@MIT-XX.ARPA

Out of my way, I'm a scientist!
	War of the Worlds