Time Dilation.... HOW THE HELL

[Guest]

ive been jugling a little thought of mine if time dilation causes time to slow as speed increaces how do you know if speed really in since speed is relitive let me explain what i mean... suppose for a minute the universe consisted of two points of matter (this is merly to simplify the concept to needed somponents) and point A begins to move away from the other at a speed of 5 unit of measure a second (the unit doesnt really matter)if we used point B as the fixed refrence point then we would assume that point A where at a slower relitive time compared to point B's time but if we where looking at this from point A's POV (point of view) then point B would be moving at 5 units of measure a second and therfor would have to consider point B's time to be slower... so how could we EVER predict which time is going to be slower and if we cant then how do we know how the laws of phisics to this matter aply?

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[Guest]

Excellent question.

This is a prelude to what is called the classic "three body problem" in a way, and also has implcations for what is also known as the EPR paradox pointed out by Einstein as a property of Quantum Physics' "Wave collapse theory" that does not reconcile with General relativity.

If, (and this is a BIG if,) there were only two bodies in existence to perform the dilation measurement against, your seeming paradox is very real.

The problem arises however in that with only two bodies in existence, it is actually impossible to determine which one is in motion, and which one is at rest.

To my knowlege, it is also an experiment that as yet has been impossible to perform by the very nature of our existence in the universe itself. How could we ever isolate two bodies and measure the velocity of either as if nothing else exists? "We" become a "body" ourselves. Our measuring equipment becomes a "body". If we talk at the quantum level, we're already talking about billions of "bodies" just to set up the experiment in the first place.

It's probably a thought experiment only in the first place and can never be resolved. Thus it would remain a paradox as you imply here.

If anyone else out there can expand on this, please do. In the meantime, I'm going to go looking for some better answer than I can come up with for this. There MUST be one.