- #1
DiracPool
- 1,243
- 516
The two most famous "tests" for the accuracy of time dilation in SR are 1) the plane that flew around the globe with the atomic clock, and 2) the muon experiments on the mountain. I'm assuming, of course, that all the experimental controls are correct and so are the results. My question is how do we rule out the effects of acceleration in testing a pure SR Lorentz contraction model? The plane flying around the globe obviously experiences centripetal acceleration among others, and the muons decelerate when they travel through the atmosphere (don't they?)
This problem also relates to the twin paradox, where many explanations use the "turn around" acceleration to control for the anomalies of "who is receding from whom," etc.
Obviously, the best thing to do would be to test the twins' age differences when the traveling twin reached the distant planet and before it made any accelerating turn around. But can that be done, even in principle, through some sort of clock synchronization? How can time dilation be tested reliably in truly SR non-accelerating frames?
This problem also relates to the twin paradox, where many explanations use the "turn around" acceleration to control for the anomalies of "who is receding from whom," etc.
Obviously, the best thing to do would be to test the twins' age differences when the traveling twin reached the distant planet and before it made any accelerating turn around. But can that be done, even in principle, through some sort of clock synchronization? How can time dilation be tested reliably in truly SR non-accelerating frames?