Two colony spaceships sitting in a tree..

[Dropout]

50,000 years have passed since Colony spaceship A and Colony spaceship B launched from Earth. Like in a star trek episode, they all reverted to barbarism, and then regrew a new technological society. Theyre big colony ships.

Colony ship A finds out that they are 1 light-year away from Colony ship B. They start commmunicating with eachother, and discover they are also at rest with eachother. They decide to join forces, but Colony ship B's propulsion system is broke. So Colony Ship A then accelerates REAL FAST at 99.99999999999999% the speed of light in 1 minute to dock with Colony ship B, 1 year later Colony Ship A decelerates and then docks with the other colony ship.

So according to relativity colony ship A only aged a few hours, while Colony Ship B aged an entire year.

WRONG!



------B ----------A

C

Some guy on Planet C thats monitoring the entire situation, notices that Colony ship A and B are wizzing by at 99.9999999999999999999999% the speed of light. Planet C sees that A decelerates to zero, then reaccelerates to 99.99999999999999999% the speed of light to dock with B. PLanet C notes that B experienced time dialation the entire time.

So what is it?

A) A new universe is created for Planet C that says Colony Ship B experienced time dialation.

B) Each particle in the universe has a history log showing every velocity change, so paradoxes like this cant happen.

[MacM]

50,000 years have passed since Colony spaceship A and Colony spaceship B launched from Earth. Like in a star trek episode, they all reverted to barbarism, and then regrew a new technological society. Theyre big colony ships.

Colony ship A finds out that they are 1 light-year away from Colony ship B. They start commmunicating with eachother, and discover they are also at rest with eachother. They decide to join forces, but Colony ship B's propulsion system is broke. So Colony Ship A then accelerates REAL FAST at 99.99999999999999% the speed of light in 1 minute to dock with Colony ship B, 1 year later Colony Ship A decelerates and then docks with the other colony ship.

So according to relativity colony ship A only aged a few hours, while Colony Ship B aged an entire year.

WRONG!



------B ----------A

C

Some guy on Planet C thats monitoring the entire situation, notices that Colony ship A and B are wizzing by at 99.9999999999999999999999% the speed of light. Planet C sees that A decelerates to zero, then reaccelerates to 99.99999999999999999% the speed of light to dock with B. PLanet C notes that B experienced time dialation the entire time.

So what is it?

A) A new universe is created for Planet C that says Colony Ship B experienced time dialation.

B) Each particle in the universe has a history log showing every velocity change, so paradoxes like this cant happen.

As long as you include acceleration (GR) affect in your scenario, it is difficult to debate Relativity. However, if you isolate SR and consider observation, experimental data, etc you can rightfully conclude Einstien's Relativity is in deep trouble.

[Arshoon]

The only affect would be on the people in colony ship A. It appears to them that time didn't really pass but for us (B and the planet) that it did for a year. It's all relative.

[neutralino]

Modern Physics by Serway, Moses, and Moyer handles a similar problem in the first chapter of the text. On pages 20 through 22, the Twin Paradox (which sounds like your thought experiment) is explained, and it should resolve some problems in your statement. However, the text's discussion does seem to have a contradiction about inertial reference frames.