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The light goes wherever you point it. If you point the light vertically in either frame it follows a diagonal path in the other. The same applies if I climb a ladder vertically in one frame, I move di …

The answer is that you are younger than your twin in his frame, and he is younger than you in yours. There is no paradox here. The reason why this happens is that you and your twin have different 'now …

No, you misunderstand. Either the lightning can strike the two ends of the train simultaneously in the frame of the train- in which case it strikes at two different times in the frame of the platform- …

You are overlooking the relativity of simultaneity and misunderstanding the symmetry of time dilation. Suppose the light flashes when the mid-point of the observers on the train passes the mid point o …

At the risk of making the experiment sound more complicated, there are two considerations here. The first is that the local duration of a flash is frame dependent. In a frame in which the flash occurs …

It is a common misconception that time dilation is some effect that impedes the action of clocks as a result of their motion, which then leads people to ask how come different types of clocks are affe …

The answer to your first question is that in your frame of reference the light will take one second to reach you. The answer to the second is that B will measure a longer time than you did, because li …

Since SR is entirely symmetrical, you can imagine the train and crate are initially at rest, and the crate is then thrown through the window at some speed. Since in that frame, in which the train and …

Your comment 'but shouldn't time always move slower when you are in motion' is the clue to why you might be struggling to understand what is happening, so let's see if we can help... Firstly, let's im …

You must be using the word motion in a very specific sense, because in the more general sense of the word motion is clearly observable. Motion is a change of position over time, and we can clearly ob …

If you were at the centre of the balloon, it would appear to be a sphere. The speed at which the balloon was expanding away from you would appear to be reduced owing to the Doppler red-shift effect. I …

Assuming the blocks are elastic, when the lighter block hits the heavier one, the two momentarily compress then uncompress and come apart. It is that interaction that transfers momentum and energy fro …

Time dilation is widely misconceived and many of the explanations of it are simply misguided. The common misconception is that clocks slow down in some absolute sense when they move- they do no such t …

If A changes their velocity then you can say absolutely that A has accelerated, since acceleration is not a relative effect. That said, you still cannot say in any absolute sense who is moving, since …

You are mixing up observations from the two frames of reference. Let's say Bolt A hits the rear of the train and leaves Mark A on the adjacent platform, while Bolt B hits the front of the train and le …