Why do moving clocks run slow, and what does it do to a traveller?
Special relativity makes one strange prediction: the faster you move, the slower your clock runs compared with someone at rest. It sounds like a paradox until you see it measured, and the cleanest measurement comes from particles made in the upper atmosphere.
Start with the muon, where the effect is a real count of particles that should not reach the ground and do. Then use the same equation for a person and see why the twin who turns around is the one who ends up younger.
- 1 Article
The Physics of Time Dilation: A Closer Look
Read this first for the idea and the Lorentz factor, before any numbers.
- 2 Simulation
The muon paradox
The measurement: muons that should decay in the sky are found at sea level.
- 3 Simulation
The twin paradox: how much younger does the traveller return?
The same equation applied to a person, and why the traveller who turns around is the one who ends up younger.
- 4 Article
Top 6 things that can travel faster than light
The limit that makes all of this happen, and the things that seem to break it but do not.
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