Physics Asked on June 7, 2021
Bare with me as I try to use my fishy understanding of relativity.
In the twin paradox, one body is able to know that it changed it’s inertial frame of reference (from one moving away from the second observer to the one moving towards the second observer) because it knows that it accelerated. (I think that) The body (observer) knows it was accelerated because different parts of it with different masses reacted differently to it. (Think of your internal organs moving faster than your limbs for example).
Now if there’s an observer made up of entirely identical particles, would it be able to know it was accelerated?
If it can’t, how would it solve the twin paradox?
If you are in a spaceship that starts to accelerate with acceleration $vec a$ then relative to the spaceship all objects will appear to accelerate in the opposite direction i.e. with acceleration $-vec a$. This acceleration does not depend on the mass of the objects. If you did not realise that the spaceship was accelerating then you would say that a mysterious force field had appeared which acted on all objects in the spaceship with a force proportion to their mass (so that they all have the same acceleration). This mystery force field would appear to be identical to a gravitational field - this is not coincidence.
In the twin paradox the fact that one twin has been accelerated at some point in their journey simply shows that the experiences of the two twin are not identical, and so the time dilation that they experience need not be symmetrical.
As BioPhysicist says in their answer, it is also possible to create a version of the twin paradox without acceleration, although in that version the person who leaves earth and the person who arrives back on earth are two different people.
Correct answer by gandalf61 on June 7, 2021
Yes. You can investigate the physics and see that during acceleration the physics changes. One simple example is that if you have some flexible string and you quickly pull one end, it gets stretched.
Answered by Umaxo on June 7, 2021
The twin paradox has nothing to do with the perception of acceleration. The twin in the rocket does in fact change inertial reference frames regardless of their perception of the change. The change of reference frames is important not the perception of the change.
Answered by BioPhysicist on June 7, 2021
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