Complete Solution To The Twins Paradox

minutephysics2 HN recommenders · 2018–2021
2.3M views · explainer · evergreen · Uploaded 2016-08-26

A minutephysics explainer on the twins paradox in special relativity. It shows why the traveling twin ends up younger and how acceleration resolves the paradox.

HN commenters recommend it as an easy-to-digest explanation of time dilation and the twin paradox.

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4 comments from Hacker News

@Sean17082018 · in “First Successful Test of General Relativity Near Supermassive Black Hole”

Minute Physics did a good couple of videos on this[0,1], pretty much the same info as is in the Wiki but might be easier to digest for some people. [0]: [LINK] [1]: [VIDEO]

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@p1mrx2020 · in “Fastest star ever seen is moving at 8% the speed of light”

These minutephysics videos provide some idea of what's happening: - [LINK] - [VIDEO] (Although the time dilation in Interstellar is due to gravity, not high-speed travel.)

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@MichaelApproved2021 · in “Stars that race through space at nearly the speed of light”

When you accelerate away from me in an elevator, only one of us experiences additional forces during that acceleration. Only your body feels heavier as the elevator speeds up. Here’s a minute physics video that shows how acceleration explains the twins paradox (the “common” explanation) [VIDEO] After you watch minute physics video, you might feel like you understand. Nope, can’t have any of that. Now, you must watch this Fermi lab video that says the common explanation is “not fundamentally correct” [LINK]

@godelski2021 · in “Why can’t I go faster than the speed of light?”

I'm pretty sure this doesn't work out because you have to slow down. So thinking about it, if you are traveling at that speed because of your inertial reference frame it is equivalent that everyone else around you is moving at (or near) the speed of light and they are moving slowly through time. This is the classic twin paradox and there is a resolution to it, which is that you can't instantaneously turn around.[0] Or in our case, we have to turn around to slow down. [0] [VIDEO]