Father-Son Paradox: Explaining Time Dilation

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kannan_k
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This is an extension of twin paradox of STR. Suppose when the father was 30yrs old, he got into this flight which moves close to c. After a while in that he comes back to see his Son older to him! I'm sure this is a possibility from time dilation. Is this really possible? If so, how is the father going to explain all this to someone else who doesn't know about his space trip! :-)
 
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kannank@live said:
This is an extension of twin paradox of STR. Suppose when the father was 30yrs old, he got into this flight which moves close to c. After a while in that he comes back to see his Son older to him! I'm sure this is a possibility from time dilation. Is this really possible? If so, how is the father going to explain all this to someone else who doesn't know about his space trip! :-)
It's possible in principle but it's never going to actually happen because of the technical challenges to overcome, not to mention the extraordinary cost.

But explaining how something happened without letting them know what happened is impossible, don't you think?
 
ghwellsjr said:
It's possible in principle but it's never going to actually happen because of the technical challenges to overcome, not to mention the extraordinary cost.

But explaining how something happened without letting them know what happened is impossible, don't you think?

There is hardly anything surprising about it. If the father travels long enough with a velocity close to the speed of loght, he may come back only to find that millions of years have passed on the Earth and the explaining can't be done because there is no one left to explain to!
 
backward said:
There is hardly anything surprising about it. If the father travels long enough with a velocity close to the speed of loght, he may come back only to find that millions of years have passed on the Earth and the explaining can't be done because there is no one left to explain to!
That may be true but you have just changed the scenario that the OP described so it isn't relevant. The OP said, "he comes back to see his Son older to him".
 
kannank@live said:
If so, how is the father going to explain all this to someone else who doesn't know about his space trip! :-)
Really? This is your concern? How to explain physical results without disclosing the relevant physical facts?

You cannot do it.