full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Amber Stuver: Einstein's twin paradox explained

Unscramble the Blue Letters


This asymmetry accounts for why the paradox isn’t really a paradox. Although each twin witnesses time both speeding up and slowing down for the other, Stella sees an even spilt, while Terra sees Stella aging slowly for most of the time they’re apart. This is consistent with each twin’s mrseaemunet of the space voyage, which takes 23 etrah years, but only 11.5 as eeenxpirced aobard the ship. When the tiwns are reuetind, Terra will be 43 years old, while Stella will be 31.

Where Stella went wnrog was her assumption that she and Terra had equal cailm to being inertial observers. To be an inertial observer, one has to maintain a constant speed and direction relative to the rest of the universe. Terra was at rest the eirnte time, so her velocity was a constant zero. But when Stella changed her direction for the return journey, she entered a different reference frame from the one she’d started in.

Open Cloze


This asymmetry accounts for why the paradox isn’t really a paradox. Although each twin witnesses time both speeding up and slowing down for the other, Stella sees an even _____, while Terra sees Stella aging slowly for most of the time they’re apart. This is consistent with each twin’s ___________ of the space voyage, which takes 23 _____ years, but only 11.5 as ___________ ______ the ship. When the _____ are ________, Terra will be 43 years old, while Stella will be 31.

Where Stella went _____ was her assumption that she and Terra had equal _____ to being inertial observers. To be an inertial observer, one has to maintain a constant speed and direction relative to the rest of the universe. Terra was at rest the ______ time, so her velocity was a constant zero. But when Stella changed her direction for the return journey, she entered a different reference frame from the one she’d started in.

Solution


  1. reunited
  2. claim
  3. earth
  4. split
  5. entire
  6. experienced
  7. wrong
  8. twins
  9. measurement
  10. aboard

Original Text


This asymmetry accounts for why the paradox isn’t really a paradox. Although each twin witnesses time both speeding up and slowing down for the other, Stella sees an even split, while Terra sees Stella aging slowly for most of the time they’re apart. This is consistent with each twin’s measurement of the space voyage, which takes 23 Earth years, but only 11.5 as experienced aboard the ship. When the twins are reunited, Terra will be 43 years old, while Stella will be 31.

Where Stella went wrong was her assumption that she and Terra had equal claim to being inertial observers. To be an inertial observer, one has to maintain a constant speed and direction relative to the rest of the universe. Terra was at rest the entire time, so her velocity was a constant zero. But when Stella changed her direction for the return journey, she entered a different reference frame from the one she’d started in.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
stella observes 3
aging slowly 3
notice time 2
special relativity 2
reference frame 2
light burst 2
aging rapidly 2
light bursts 2
terra observes 2
stella aging 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
stella aging slowly 2

Important Words


  1. aboard
  2. accounts
  3. aging
  4. assumption
  5. asymmetry
  6. changed
  7. claim
  8. consistent
  9. constant
  10. direction
  11. earth
  12. entered
  13. entire
  14. equal
  15. experienced
  16. frame
  17. inertial
  18. journey
  19. maintain
  20. measurement
  21. observer
  22. observers
  23. paradox
  24. reference
  25. relative
  26. rest
  27. return
  28. reunited
  29. sees
  30. ship
  31. slowing
  32. slowly
  33. space
  34. speed
  35. speeding
  36. split
  37. started
  38. stella
  39. takes
  40. terra
  41. time
  42. twin
  43. twins
  44. universe
  45. velocity
  46. voyage
  47. witnesses
  48. wrong
  49. years