AaS! 174: What Solves the Twin Paradox?

Ask a Spaceman!

Paul M. Sutter

Astrophysics, Science, Cosmos, Holes, Black, Astronomy, Natural Sciences, Universe, Cosmology, Space, Physics

4.8 • 853 Ratings

🗓️ 19 April 2022

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

What does everybody think is the twin paradox? What's the REAL twin paradox? How is the paradox resolved, and what does it teach us about synchronicity? I discuss these questions and more in today’s Ask a Spaceman!

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Thanks to Cathy Rinella for editing.

Hosted by Paul M. Sutter, astrophysicist and the one and only Agent to the Stars (http://www.pmsutter.com).

Transcript

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0:00.0	You ever hear the one about the so-called twin paradox?
0:12.0	Let's say it's far, far, far in the future. How far?
0:16.0	Well, it doesn't matter as long as it's far enough that our characters have access to whatever technology we need them to have to tell the story.
0:24.3	So anyway, future.
0:25.5	Our characters are Alice and Bob.
0:28.7	They are twins born less than 10 minutes apart.
0:33.0	At the start of our story, they've just celebrated their 20th birthday.
0:37.3	Happy birthday, Alice and Bob.
0:39.5	But that day, Bob decides to get in a rocket ship and blasts off. Bob quickly approaches a
0:46.6	cruising speed of three-fifths the speed of light. He travels to a destination three light years
0:53.3	away, somewhere near Proxima Centauri, perhaps, turns around and returns to Earth.
0:59.2	He lands a spaceship.
1:01.1	According to Alice, Bob has been gone for 10 years.
1:05.7	Five years to get to his destination, wherever the heck that is, somewhere near Proxima, presumably, and five
1:12.8	years to return. Alice is now, of course, 30 years old because 20 plus 10 equals 30. But Bob is only 28
1:24.1	years old. Alice is confused. See, she had a watch on the entire time and kept
1:30.0	careful track of the seconds, the minutes, the hours, the days, the weeks, the month,
1:34.5	the years. She really missed Bob. But so is Bob. He had a watch on the entire time, and
1:43.0	he kept careful track of the seconds,
1:45.5	the minutes, the hours, the days, the weeks, the months, and the years. I mean, he missed
1:50.1	Alice, but he was also having a really good time. According to Alice's watch, 10 years have
1:55.2	fast. According to bombs, only eight. Indeed, Alice does seem a little bit older now, a few more wrinkles, a little sprinkling of gray hair.
	...

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