From: "Arlie Capps" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, April 19, 2004 9:58 AM
> Eh, yeah, just a little bit. Here's a neophyte question. So if Alice > zooms out from where Bob stands a good long ways at a substantial fraction > of the speed of light, to Alice, Bob's clock would slow down. And to Bob, > Alice's clock would also slow down. Then if Alice quickly changed > directions and came back to the same spot, coming in Alice's clock would > look slow to Bob, and at the same time Bob's clock would look slow to > Alice. As far as I understand it, to each one, it would appear that that > one had gone through more time than the other. What went on here? After > Alice's return, is Alice or is Bob "older?" Or are they the same? This > is what always puzzled me. Is this question even sensical? Where should > I read to understand this better? I believe the theory is that if someone leaves earth traveling near light speed and returns near light speed, time on earth would have passed by more slowly for the traveler than for those remaining on earth (The traveler would be younger than his/her twin sibling on earth). I've never believed this for the following reasons: 1) If you think of the earth moving away from the traveler near the speed of light, then returning to the traveler near the speed of light, then wouldn't the earth-bound sibling be the younger one? 2) Given a traveler passing by a stationary observer at near the speed of light (both wielding "light clocks"), the stationary observer would see the light particle moving a greater distance between the mirrors of the traveler than his own. However, I maintain that though the traveler's light particles had to traverse a greater distance, the light clocks would remain in sync; the traveler's light moves faster (don't tell any physics profesors I said that). This means that "The Speed of Light" isn't the maximum speed of light. 3) Light bouncing between two mirrors doesn't measure time. Just because (as many believe) the period of the light particle would slow down as the stationary observer views the traveler's clock (because light can only go so fast), it doesn't mean that Time would slow down too, it just means the traveler would have to reset his light clock everytime he decided to travel at the speed of light. BTW, he should upgrade to the fancy wind-it-up mechanical watch which will continue to keep the correct time despite intergalactic travel. 4) As all electromagnetic pulses travel at/near the speed of light (don't they?), when I google.com/news, I'd be getting yesterdays news wouldn't I? The "information's" light clock would slow down as it traveled to my computer, while my light clock stayed the same, thus I'd grow old while the information was still young. By the time I got it, I'd be like, "Holy Crap, I requested that info yesterday!" -more of a joke than logic. Anyway, take it for what it's worth: a non-physics educated free-thinker thinking freely of logic. Let me know where my thinking goes wrong. Matt W. ____________________ BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ ___________________________________________________________________ List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
