by okielogger78 » October 14th, 2009, 2:10 am
There is a way to fix this paradox. The act of braking or accelerating is the solution. If it weren't for the acceleration and decceleration, the twin traveling wouldn't know he is moving. The ship feels a force on it while it is accelerating from Earth to c, then a force when it turns around, then another force when it brakes at the Earth. From the point of view of the Earthbound Twin, the ship is moving away to a certain point and returning some time later, taken from from his frame of reference. Now from the frame of reference of the Shipbound Twin, the Earth would suddenly accelerate away from him to c, then it would come to a hault and circle around him and start accelerating back toward him to c, then it would deccelerate as it is approaching him until he landed back on it. We know that the Shipbound Twin feels the acceleration and decceleration of the trip. One big question, does the Earthbound Twin feel the same forces as well? He apparently doesn't. Where the physics breaks down is in the frames of reference that are not in uniform relative motion, ie, acceleration and braking frames.