RE Relativity Question

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From: Eric Friedman (mcelover@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Mar 24 2003 - 08:29:13 PST 

Message-ID: <20030324162913.9729.qmail@web40904.mail.yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 08:29:13 -0800 (PST)
From: Eric Friedman <mcelover@yahoo.com>
Subject: RE Relativity Question

Hey Deb and others

What I always try to tell my kids is that with regards
to time dilation (at least in terms of special
relativity) you can't trust the opinion of anyone who
accelerates. So unless the person on the
accelerating rocket ship knows a bit of General
Relativity, they can't use the old Special Relativity
formulas. Anytime someone accelerates, they move into
a different space-time. So what you have are lots of
different space-times in your scenario. The Earth,
since it doesnt accelerate (OK, it's accerating ALL
THE TIME as we whiz around the sun and the galaxy--I
guess we just ignore that?!?), remains in one
space-time. Each rocket traveler will be in two
different space-times on their trip. So you've got 5
different space-times. I'd say--and I'm not entirely
confident in this--that the only way the travelers
will agree upon the time when they return to Earth is
if they take a side-by-side trip and undergo the same
accelerations. Of course if they knew General
Relativity they could predict the time difference and
be satisfied with the time difference . . . But who
REALLY knows G.R. anyway?

--Eric

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