Ever wondered why space travel affects aging differently for astronauts?
Twin paradox
Ever wondered why space travel affects aging differently for astronauts?
Imagine twins, Sam and Alex. Sam embarks on a high-speed space trip, while Alex stays on Earth. Sam returns younger than Alex, defying common sense.
Sam's journey involves moving at speeds close to light, causing time to slow down for him compared to Alex, who remains stationary. This phenomenon is called time dilation.
Example
If Sam travels at 90% the speed of light for 10 years (as measured by Alex on Earth), Sam would age only 3.3 years.
Remember this
Time dilation shows that moving faster through space can make time pass slower for you.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Related concepts
Special relativity
Albert Einstein's special relativity paper introduced time dilation
Relativity of simultaneity
Simultaneity depends on the observer's motion
Time dilation
Clocks run slower in stronger gravitational fields
Lorentz transformation
Lorentz transformations relate space and time coordinates between two inertial frames
Error analysis for the Global Positioning System
GPS satellites must correct for relativistic effects to avoid 10 km/day position drift
Criticism of the theory of relativity
Michelson-Morley experiment null result
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