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Terrell "rotation" works conveniently as a description for spherical objects only. The effect of seeming to see "behind" things that are "in front" of you is a simple combination of two things: You …

Acceleration is absolutely not necessary to understand the "Twin Paradox". Furthermore, it is a significant impediment to understanding the "Twin Paradox". The "Twin Paradox" is a great example of a …

Draw a spacetime diagram with the two spaceships approaching the origin (your equidistant point) at 0.5c. Read off from that diagram the (equal) elapsed proper times ($\tau^2 = t^2 - x^2$) for each s …

No. The twins "conundrum" (I don't even want to call this FAQ a "paradox" any more!) is simply there to teach students that different paths through spacetime give different results in general. There …

The person who travels always ages less the the one who does not. That is the only answer in Special relativity. Learn about the spacetime interval.

There is a difference between what "happens", described by the Lorentz Transformations, and what you see with incoming light beams, which is heavily influenced by differing light delay times from part …

In a word: no. When you appear to "see around" an object in SR visualizations, you are seeing exactly the same parts of it as you would if you were stationary, but the object is projected further forw …

Concentrate on the nearest top die on the right. The reason you can see the "four" face is that you have already passed the "one" face of the die! It is just that aberration has distorted the image …

There is a very old but fantastic article on precisely this subject - the Relativistic Rocket. I don't think I can really add much to the Great Man's words, so just read and enjoy.

There is no specifically forbidden "region" in a real spacetime diagram in SR. If you look at the accelerated world line, it starts nearly vertical, and "tilts" over as speed increases, but never gets …

I have made some videos of the twin paradox from the traveller's point of view (i.e. first person) here. I'll post the channel notes here to add a bit of substance, I would appreciate feedback and co …

It is simply this: the one who takes the "direct" route between two locations will register a smaller distance traveled than one who goes via a third location.

No, as the object would be in a non-inertial frame of reference.

OK as requested I am going to attempt an answer, for better or worse! I have made some videos here that illustrate this distortion, but they might be a little "busy" for this discussion. Please read …

This is my favourite; the Twins "Conundrum": Stay-at-home twin: $$d\tau^2 = dt^2 - dx^2 = dt^2$$ $$d\tau = dt$$ Traveling twin ($0.8c$), there & back: $$d\tau^2 = dt^2 - dx^2 = dt^2 - 0.64dt^2 = 0.36d …