Twin paradox
A mind boggling theory, which at first is seemingly so absurd that you might think it’s not worth
the attention. But, when closely observed and investigated it’s true !! Actually, mind boggling,right ?? Let’s get to know more about this intriguing paradox.
Albert Einstein, one of the greatest physicists of all time. It was he who proposed this paradox at
first. So, the next part of this experiment is the things required for it. Want to know the funny part??
There are no ‘things’ as in this experiment. The requirements are, a pair of twins (names are :Sam and Tom) and a rocket that travels at atleast 90% the speed of light. So, now how does this
work ??
Simple, make Sam sit in the rocket travelling at the speed of the light and launch him to spaceat full speed, i.e, 90% speed light and let him return after completing one orbit around theclosest star to our Sun. And the other twin, Tom?? Let him stay on earth.
Now, before we go forward and see what happens it’s important for us to take a look at Time Dilation, it according to Special Relativity means that a moving clock moves slowly as compared to stationary clocks. So, how does it relate to our paradox ??
Sam (twin inside the rocket) moves at high speed, and for him it is Earth that is moving awayfrom him and returning back. While, for Tom (twin on Earth) it is Sam who is going away from him. In both the cases the brothers have the same thinking of themselves being stationary while the other going away and coming back. This means that for each twin the other is the one for whom the clock is going slowly. And if we relate it with age, it indicates that both will still have the same age. Mind-blowing right ??
Now, here comes the twist to solve this paradox. The logic of solving this problem lies in the knowledge of Inertial Frames of References. Tom remains in the single inertial frame of
reference for the entire journey, while his twin must accelerate to leave earth, decrease his speed to complete one revolution around the closest star to Sun and decelerate even more to land again. The accelerations involved make Sam’s journey completely different from his earthbound counterpart. The accelerations invoke an asymmetry in both their situations.
Before moving forward, it’s now important to know that the difference in accelerations and being in a single inertial frame of reference are asymmetric to each other. This asymmetry resolves
our paradox and makes us realise that there will indeed be a twin who will be younger than the other. So, which of them will it be ??
When we invoke the use topic of simultaneity (what is going on at what time), we realise that during the turning of Sam’s rocket, there is a sudden change in his perception of simultaneity and this jump in the suddenly opposite direction causes increase in the time of the twin on
Earth. And this resolves the twin paradox.A lot to understand for this mind blowing, twisted, yet interesting paradox. It’s a tough nut to
crack. Once cracked it’s easy enough to remember though.
Orbital Infinity 
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