My dilemma relates to rocket man aging more slowly than his counterpart on Earth. What if our traveler is stationary, but the Earth moves away from him instead of him moving away from the Earth? (Ignore the effects of Earth leaving it's orbit, please) Is it the Earth folks that age more slowly, then? The relative motion between the traveler and the Earth is the same either way, and so why would it matter who's doing the moving?
If the answer is that it's not the relative velocity between the two that matters, but rather absolute velocity referenced to some theoretical motionless state, how could that state ever be determined? Also, if we imagined the whole universe was moving in some direction at high speed, and rocket man were traveling the opposite direction at the same speed, he would become motionless relative to this reference? So, instead of elongating in the direction of travel, he would shrink?!
Thanks for your help
Signed,
Relatively Confused
2007-08-12
15:17:54
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7 answers
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asked by
philmeta11
3
in
Physics