Recent content by Tony Wright

Yes, I understood the purpose of MM to show that light speed is not related to a stationary medium as sound is. My question about fixed points in space was different but irrelevant because the behaviour of time in the twin paradox is due to acceleration which I now realize is absolute, not...

I can say that my first conceptual difficulty is that for the twins in my scenario to experience the motion ie acceleration, differently implies that their motion is measured with respect to an external definition; ie there are fixed points in space even though motion of objects is relative. Can...

Thank you for all your replies; just what I’d hoped for. I will read them thoroughly before coming back. Yes, sorry about the other post; I didn’t see it when I logged in and thought it had failed.

As a layman I find resolution of the twin paradox in terms of physics difficult. Given the observation of time dilation by astronauts on their return to Earth I can only approach it by means of the thought experiment In which the Earth is removed and the twins perform the same relative movements...

As a layman I also have conceptual difficulties with the twin paradox. It would allow me to move on if some one could quickly answer the rather obvious question: would there be any time dilation if the Earth was removed entirely from the thought experiment so that the twins are in a symmetrical...