[Robby]

I'm starting a seperate thread for this.... This has puzzled me for awhile now, so anyone got any ideas??

I've always been confused by the "twins paradox". One twin leaves earth travelling at close to the speed of light. He returns some years in the future and due to relativity the twin the remained on earth has aged alot more than the travelling twin.

I can understand half of it, based on the clock explanation...
If we travel away from a clock at close to the speed of light, the time on the clock will appear to run slower. This is fine. This must mean that when you head back towards the clock, the clock will appear to run faster. Therefore when you return to the clock the same amout of time will have elapsed for both the traveller and the clock.
This seems to contradict the "twins paradox". Sure when the traveller is travelling away from home, time for the traveller is slower (relative to earth), but on return time is faster. Surely these would cancel each other out and the twins should have aged by the same amount.

I'm probably missing something here??
Cheers