[Phys-L] Re: "moving clock runs slower" (yes)

[Robert Cohen <Robert.Cohen@PO-BOX.ESU.EDU>]

So would it be better to say "motion at such enormous ACCELERATIONS
drastically slows the clock for the traveler"?

____________________________________________________
Robert Cohen; 570-422-3428; www.esu.edu/~bbq
East Stroudsburg University; E. Stroudsburg, PA 18301


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Forum for Physics Educators
> [mailto:PHYS-L@list1.ucc.nau.edu] On Behalf Of Larry Woolf
> Sent: Friday, September 16, 2005 1:10 PM
>
> A timely letter to the editor of Science News;
>
> <http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050716/fob7.asp>
>
> ---------------------------
>
> In your article you refer to a standard concept of a person
> speeding "in a rocket traveling slightly less than the speed
> of light" and say that "motion at such enormous speeds
> drastically slows the clock for the traveler." That
> reasoning, which is common, troubles me. If the traveler is
> traveling speedily with respect to an observer, then,
> clearly, the observer is traveling speedily with respect to
> the traveler (who is observing the observer). Since all
> motion is relative, why shouldn't the observer's clock slow
> down as observed by the traveler?
>
> Arra Avkain
> Fresno, Calif.
>
> The difference is subtle, but it's because the traveler
> changes direction-turning around is a form of
> acceleration-that less time passes for that voyager than for
> the observer.-P. Weiss
>
> Larry Woolf
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