Time Dilation - Theory of Relativity

Afaceinthematrix

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHjpBjgIMVk

My friend told me about that video and I watched it. It's one of the best explanations that I've seen for time dilation. Has anyone else seen any better explanations?

Bikerman

It's not bad - based on the standard explanation of a light clock.
If you want slightly more detail (ie - putting some numbers to it) then I composed a little paper on it a while ago:
http://bikerman.info/resources/mywork/t-dilation/timedilation.htm

Note that in the document I made a mistake (limitation of the graphics I used).
The final derivation should read sqr(1-(v^2/c^2)) NOT sqr((1-v^2)/c^2). I will get around to fixing it one of these days Smile

Afaceinthematrix

I also like your explanation, Bikerman. The link that I posted is a great video for people just being introduced to time dilation. Your paper is relatively easy to understand, so it's a good "part 2" or follow up to the video.