08-05-2015, 12:55 PM
Thank you Todd, your reply helped me see it all in a different way.
While that does make sense and it did cross my mind, what of a ship travelling at constant velocity? It still experiences the effects, doesn't it?
(08-03-2015, 11:54 PM)iancampbell Wrote: IIRC the twin "paradox" is eliminated by noting that the situation is only symmetrical if neither of the observers is accelerating. Which isn't the case, in the usual formulation of the problem. Earth is following a geodesic (the curved space equivalent of a straight line), but the spaceship is accelerating throughout and that's why the time spans are different in the direction they are.
While that does make sense and it did cross my mind, what of a ship travelling at constant velocity? It still experiences the effects, doesn't it?