matheinste said:
Hello Al68.
Quote:-
---Some of the resolutions say that acceleration is the key to the problem, but they claim this as an axiom without showing why this is true----
To start with this point. To get back to the smaller picture let us talk about the role of acceleration in the standard twin paradox. This has been explained very well in many threads in this forum. I may be able to rephrase a few things but better people than me seem not have been able to make it clear to you so I don’t hold out much hope but I will try.
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Let the ship moves off in any direction, for our convenience we will show this displacement as being along the horizontal axis in our spacetime diagram. It does not matter whether to the left or to the right. The worldline of the ship will therefore be a straight line let us say to the right, and its angle upwards to the horizontal will be proportional to its velocity which may be anything less than c.
Thanks for your reply. Your post is very clear, and everything you said is clear to me. It's what everyone is omitting that I'm asking about. Why must we attribute the deviation from the initial common worldline to the observer who underwent proper acceleration? Why can't we just as rightly (according to SR) attribute this deviation to the other observer and draw the Earth's worldline to the right when it's velocity relative to the ship changes (coordinate acceleration)?
Why can't we just randomly choose which observer to draw vertically on the spacetime diagram? I know that sounds like a silly question, but that very question is part of the reason Einstein pursued GR.
Maybe the answer is so intuitively obvious that nobody considers it necessary to mention, but when I ignore my intuition and use only Einstein's 1905 SR paper, I can't find the answer. (And neither could he).
I understand what happens after we decide who's worldline to draw vertically, that's just simple math. But it's that decision that seems, for lack of a better word, Newtonian.
I mentioned Mach's principle in an earlier post, but nothing came of it. I realize that when the ship fires it's thrusters, Earth's velocity changes relative only to the ship, while the ship's velocity changes relative to earth, and relative to
every other single body in the universe. This is obviously not considered important by anyone, since nobody brought it up. Is it relevant?
There have been authors who have claimed that GR is necessary to resolve the paradox but it is generally accepted that GR is not needed. As to Einstein, what can I say, I don’t know the facts.
Well, he was one of those authors, although most consider his GR resolution to be flawed.
Thanks,
Al