Twin paradox explained

The opinion of the world famous scientists on the theory of relativity varied greatly. The majority of them, overwhelmed by mathematical difficulties of the general theory of relativity, decided to keep silent. But the ones who could understand relativity welcomed it. There were many arguments against it and specifically against the twin paradox, which was first described by Einstein in his article on special relativity.

In 1905 in his special relativity A. Einstein formulated  time dilation, according to which two synchronized clocks are placed together, then one of them is moved and brought back and the clock that traveled will be found lagging behind the clock that was never moved.

After Einstein created Special Theory of  Relativity or STR , the french physicist  Paul Langevin gave the famous twin brothers example and thus twin paradox was created. This thought experiment is used to explain the contradiction in STR.

twin paradox

Nowadays twin paradox is widely studied and discussed due to the development  of advanced space shuttles and precise time measuring equipment, which can help to prove or disprove it in the future.It can be applied to anything including corsets, plus size bustiers and other sexy lingerie.

This paradox is usually described with the help of pretend 20 year old twins, living in their own universe. One of them goes for a long space trip. When he comes back they check their clocks. According to special relativity the clock of the space traveler will show lesser time since the time in space is slower than on the Earth.

Until space travel is limited by solar system and is not bigger than the speed of light this difference in time will be very small and insignificant. But if the twin travelers longer distance and closer to the  speed of light  time dilation will increase.

Hopefully in the near future there will be space ships capable to reach or at least get closer to the speed of light and twin paradox will be just the everyday routine for space travelers.

Let's say that one of the twins traveled to the galaxy, located at approximately 30 light years away. For the twin who stayed on Earth 60 years has passed when his twin brother returns, thus making him 60 years older. But for the space traveler twin, who was in motion constantly the time slowed and he ages only 30 years.

twin paradox

For the space twin time was slower in the beginning , in the middle and in the end of his trip. Only when the ship turned around and stopped completely, his time was the same as on Earth. But this stop will not change the result and the time difference will remain forever.

The idea of  time slowing down sounds fine, in theory; but how can you we be sure it is correct? One way would be to travel in a space ship at a speed near the speed of light. Unfortunately, we are not able to do this today.

Did you see that the space ship could travel very fast, but it never traveled at exactly 100 percent of the speed of light?  According to Einstein's SPR, objects gain mass as they accelerate to greater and greater speeds. If you want an object to move faster, you will need to give it a push. It is quite obvious that an object that bigger mass will require a bigger push than does an object of lesser mass. An infinite amount of mass and acceleration would be needed for an object to reach the speed of light. No space engine can do this today, some are sure that absolutely nothing can exceed the speed of light.