Author:
Giesecke, Gerald L
Category:
Research Papers
Sub-Category:
Relativity Theory
Date Published:
April 25, 2023
Keywords:
Special Relativity, Circular round-trips, Ehrenfest Paradox
Abstract:
The paper explores some idiosyncrasies of the special theory of relativity using multiple sets of three inertial reference frames. These frames, by means of imagined clock handoffs around regular polygons, are used to approximate the effects of special relativity for circular round-trips. One not-too-surprising finding is that clocks on the fronts of spaceships that are traveling the same speed but always in opposite directions on identical circular orbits will have the same elapsed times when they return to their starting positions, but their clocks will be slower than that of a stationary observer. As a consequence, however, the distance traveled by the spaceships (as determined by the spaceships) is shorter than their orbits as measured by the stationary observer. This leads to a paradox (which is similar to the Ehrenfest paradox), since the orbits of the spaceships were designed to coincide with the orbits seen by the stationary observer but are too short to coincide. A more serious problem occurs, however, since star distances measured by parallax will be shorter when determined by the spaceships than when determined by the stationary observer.
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