Article
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The Real Cause of Differential Aging in the Twin “paradox”
Version 1
: Received: 8 February 2022 / Approved: 9 February 2022 / Online: 9 February 2022 (10:20:33 CET)
How to cite: Liu, G. The Real Cause of Differential Aging in the Twin “paradox”. Preprints 2022, 2022020130. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202202.0130.v1 Liu, G. The Real Cause of Differential Aging in the Twin “paradox”. Preprints 2022, 2022020130. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202202.0130.v1
Abstract
Physicists have employed various approaches to solve the “paradox” and offered a consistent conclusion that the traveller twin is younger than the homebody twin. However, some authors attribute the cause of differential aging to acceleration, while others believe that acceleration should not be regarded as the source of differential aging, but frame switch is. So far there is no agreement on this issue. Actually, acceleration and frame switch should not be regarded as the source of differential aging. The author will introduce a thought experiment in which two very long spacecraft are moving in opposite directions at a speed close to the speed of light to discuss the real cause of differential aging. The author found that the real cause of differential aging in the twin “paradox” is because of the asymmetry of destination choice. People always choose their destinations in the universe rather than in spacecraft. The destinations are always stationary relative to the homebody twin and moving relative to the traveller twin. Once we choose a destination in a reference frame, the distance is the proper length in this reference frame, but the distance will contract in another moving reference frame, thus the recording time will be shorter.
Keywords
Twin paradox; Relativity; Space-time; Time dilation; Differential aging
Subject
Physical Sciences, Theoretical Physics
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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