relativity of Motion

[geistkiesel]

Hello' date='

I am a highschool student doing a project on Special relativity, and have done much research on the subject.

Today, while reading through Albert Einsteins book, relativity: the special and general theory, i had a bit of a thought:

One of the things covered in special relativity is that it is impossible to tell whether something is moving within a point of reference or whether the point of reference is moving.

another thing it covers is time dialation, that the faster something moves, the slower time will progress for that body.

Well, here is my thought: if i have two bodies in space, each one having chronograph identical to the other's chronograph, and the distance between these two bodies is increasing as if the bodies were traveling away from eachother at a significant fraction of the speed of light, and i can say that one of these objects is moving and the other is at rest. As said above, when something is moving, time slows down for it, therefore i can say that for the body in motion, time will slow down relative to the body at rest. So, by comparing the chronographs on these two bodies, i can truly say which body was in motion or which body was at rest...is this correct?

thank you for any input to this matter.

 

HeXeN

 

It's never easy to write without being able to use capital "r's."[/quote']

 

There are some technical problems to overcome first. If both platforms are able to perform doppler shift observation and determine their individual blue/red shift conditon, then if both platiforms focus on a common star, for example, both can determine which is moving fastest with respect to a common stationary point, the star, if they are able to communicate the information to the other. Alternatively, each platform can make all platform acceleration histories available to each other, hence each can determine who is moving, their speed and direction.

 

The watch question poses a problem. If the distance between the platforms can be determined, then it would be theoretically possible to synchronize the watches. If they were stationary with each other and the distance determined by radar reflections then the times of each watch can be calibrated. If the platforms are separating and the instantaneous distance known by both platforms, then sending clock readings between the frames can be done so both observers knows which watch is running slower.

 

Or, the frames can send coded radar signals such that a return signal can include the clock reading of the target frame at the instant of reflection.

 

An after thought. Both frames have time pulsers. Each frame, when stationary, emits timing pulse at one second intervals.. Therefore, later,whoever is moving fastest will receive the stationmary frame's pulses at a rate faster than fastest frame's pulses, and this slower rate can be detected by the slower, or stationary frame.

 

Before you go to all the expense of performing all these experiments, you had best make sure that special relativity theory is correctly describing physical reality. There is a running dispute, you know? I don't believe a word of it.

 

If the question comes up on a test regarding some aspect of Special Relativity theory and you know what the teacher is looking for in an answer, but you disagree, or have doubts or are uncertain, or unconvinced, by all means put down the teacher's expected answer and argue it out latter.