Recent content by DTThom

And I knew as I typed that, that it would come back to me again, and in a manner that doesn't fit with what I mean by the "rate" of clock ticking. A careless remark on my part. I'll quote your earlier comment, then offer my most concise explanation of what I mean by a clock's rate: I...

To JesseM and DaleSpam et al. I don't know whether you ever agree to acknowledge a clock "rate", even a purely relative one. People in all inertial frames will agree that there *exists* an interval *during* which two departed-then-reunited clocks tick a different number of times. And...

shucks..

I'll just quote myself from an old source: "To define inertial system without appealing to a physical universal system is to limit oneself to only kinematics (considerations of motions of objects absent of force), and to define inertial system in a circular (or some would say strictly...

JesseM quoted me as follows: To which JesseM then replied: As to the second part of your question: Because -- it is seen just *why* it is that we cannot determine our true state of motion relative to the universe. (See the paragraph of mine which generated your question. You had...

You can travel through space (a distance dimension) at light speed (a speed dimension). You cannot travel through spacetime at any speed. No meaning can be attached to such a statement. Distance = speed * time (relativity or not) "At rest with the universe" has a clear meaning...

I can easily deduce that the two odometers in your example traveled actual different distances, due to the actual difference showing up in the number of odometer ticks at the same place-moment in New York. I can identically deduce that the two reunited clocks I spoke of ticked an actual...

I need to clarify one paragraph in the mid portion of my previous post. Here is the first half of that paragraph, better stated: Both Kaku and Gardner were using the simplest of twins paradox scenarios, in which one party is assumed to be at rest with the cosmos, and the other party both has...

Everyone is quick to teach and slow to learn. The tens of thousands of documents purporting to explain the Twins Paradox illustrates this as well as anything. In the process of being so quick to teach, the purveyors of these documents have overlooked the simple and obvious truth about clock...