New light clock concept explains time dilation in special relativity

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The FMEL: In the crew frame the floor mirror keeps the photon from falling out the back of the rocket as it bounces between the two parallel mirrors. In the Earth frame the photon appears to be pushed along with the rocket following a curve which app ...
The FMEL: In the crew frame, the floor mirror keeps the photon from falling out the back of the rocket as it bounces between the two parallel mirrors. In the Earth frame, the photon appears to be pushed along with the rocket, following a curve which appears to make the clock slower. Credit: Joseph West.

Joseph West, a physicist at Indiana State University, has recently proposed a method for intuitively visualizing and calculating the time dilation effects in special relativity—one of the stranger concepts in modern physics.


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