Interesting .. I notice in Steven's original post the words:
Quote:
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To observe the time dilation at the heart of the twin paradox, the team set one of the aluminium ions into a slow oscillatory motion by adjusting the electric fields used to trap it. The ion in the other clock remained more or less stationary and when the team compared the frequency of the clocks it found that time on the moving ion slowed by a factor of about 10–16 when its average speed was about 10 m/s (35 km/h). The team repeated its measurements at different speeds between 0 and 40 m/s and found that the time dilation occurred exactly as predicted by special relativity.
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As a slight aside, I thought time dilation, as demonstrated by the 'twins paradox', was due to one of them undergoing acceleration (relative to the other).. I suppose they
are talking about
average velocities and
different speeds, which I suppose implies relative accelerations/decelerations between them.
Then again, I'm reminded of this one:
In Twin Paradox Twist, the Accelerated Twin is Older. In this mind experiment they are saying that:
Quote:
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time dilation can cause the accelerated twin to be older if that twin is moving slower than the other twin; in this case, velocity is the deciding factor of age, and the twin with the greater velocity is younger.
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It'd be great to use this technology to confirm/disprove this one … as we could learn lots more about whether we can define the absolute motion of the twins in terms of specific global properties of spacetime (aka the curvature).
A mind bender !! .. (again !! .. groan !!)
Cheers