Twin Paradox
| According to Einstein's
theories on time dilation, people's own biological clocks could be slowed down as
well. A set of twins have the exact same metabolic clock so this means that
they will age at the same rate. Theoretically, if one of the twins left Earth
traveling close to the speed of light they would age at a different rate from the
twin that stayed on Earth!
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Twins: Carrie and Debbie. |
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What would happen to Debbie if she left the Earth in a rocket ship that was traveling at a very high velocity? |
| From Carrie's perspective, Debbie's clock would be slowed down. When Debbie arrives at the planet Poc, which is 25 light years away from the Earth, she would have only felt that only 2.5 years had passed for her. Debbie would have only aged 2.5 years! |
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| Debbie then leaves the Planet Poc to return to Earth. When she arrives back at Earth, she will have aged another 2.5 years. That's 5 years of aging in total. However, when she steps out of the rocket to greet Carrie, she'll discover that her twin has aged 50 years!! For Carrie, Poc was 25 light years away, so Debbie took 25 years to get there, and another 25 years to return. |
| From Newtonian laws of Physics, space and time were separate entities, and each one was considered absolute and constant. Einstein decided that space and time were two different dimensions of the same entity, and they were not absolute. Instead, time and space are relative to each person. From these hypotheses, the theory of special relativity was born. I've only begun to touch upon the principles of special relativity, if you would like to learn more about the different principles illustrated on this homepage, please refer to the "Links" page. |