- #1
Bos
- 28
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Please Help...Synchronized Clocks
I've posted this before and I just want to clear things up. If A and B are on a train moving at a constant velocity (A in the front and B in the back) and they are asked to set their clocks to 12:00 when the light from a lightbulb in the center reaches them. From their perspective, it hits them simultaneously and they indeed set their clocks to 12:00 at the same time. However, person C on the platform outside claims that the light hit person B first because the light had less distanc to travel. If person A and B both decided to jump out of the train at 12:05 (according to them), then from C's perspective, it would be person B who jumps out first, since to him, B set his clock a little before A. But now my question is how A and B's clock synch up again after jumping out of the train to meet up with C. Someone has previously said that because person C sees person B jump out first, person A enjoys time dilation a bit longer which is exactly enough for their clocks to synch up again. But if A enjoyed time dilation longer, wouldn't that mean that A's clock is still ticking slower relative to C's while B's clock is speeding up relative to A's. This would only further separate the two clocks. Since B's clock was initially ahead of A's (according to C), it must be B's clock that has to slow down while A's speeds up in order for them to synch up again, right? What am I missing cause its driving me nuts! Please help..thanks.
I've posted this before and I just want to clear things up. If A and B are on a train moving at a constant velocity (A in the front and B in the back) and they are asked to set their clocks to 12:00 when the light from a lightbulb in the center reaches them. From their perspective, it hits them simultaneously and they indeed set their clocks to 12:00 at the same time. However, person C on the platform outside claims that the light hit person B first because the light had less distanc to travel. If person A and B both decided to jump out of the train at 12:05 (according to them), then from C's perspective, it would be person B who jumps out first, since to him, B set his clock a little before A. But now my question is how A and B's clock synch up again after jumping out of the train to meet up with C. Someone has previously said that because person C sees person B jump out first, person A enjoys time dilation a bit longer which is exactly enough for their clocks to synch up again. But if A enjoyed time dilation longer, wouldn't that mean that A's clock is still ticking slower relative to C's while B's clock is speeding up relative to A's. This would only further separate the two clocks. Since B's clock was initially ahead of A's (according to C), it must be B's clock that has to slow down while A's speeds up in order for them to synch up again, right? What am I missing cause its driving me nuts! Please help..thanks.