There is something more to be said about this, having read popular accounts of relativity.
A torch pointing straight up from the floor of a spaceship sends a beam of light up to the ceiling where a mirror reflects the beam back down onto the torch. To observers within the spaceship, the beam has traversed the height of the cabin twice whereas, to observers outside the ship, it has traversed two diagonal lines of greater length than that height. It has traveled further but at the same speed because the speed of light is constant. Therefore, less time has passed within the ship than outside it. This should happen whether the ship is moving outward from Sol to Proxima Centauri or returning from Proxima Centauri to Sol.
I think.
Of course I should have thought of this when I was conversing with someone who thought otherwise. But I have read elsewhere that one school of thought maintains that the time gained on the outward trip will be lost on the return trip so there must be some reason why some people in the know think that.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I still think people like Commander Hatfield were wrong.
Ad astra! Sean
It's a long time since I took a bit of special relativity for by BSc in physics. However, my recollection is the arguments for the consensus view of time dilation made sense to me at the time.
Kaor, Jim!
Commander Hatfield mist have known a lot more than I do about physics and special relativity than I do. So I'm puzzled at how he reached the conclusions he did.
Ad astra! Sean
I am very puzzled. He seems to have assumed a sort of compensation factor by which time gained one way would be lost another way making them even out but he seems not to have taken into account the reason for time dilation in the first place.
Kaor, Paul!
I think that was Hatfield's basic error.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment