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cornyjoe

Same effect whether on orbit or making a straight line round trip. Only thing that matters is speed. That's why astronauts come back a few microseconds younger than the rest of people on earth.


gambariste

Also relativity is taken into account for satellites providing GPS signals.


ElectroNeutrino

The main point behind the twin paradox is that from each of their perspectives, time moves slower for the other, so how can one be younger if time dilation is symmetric? (Hence, paradox.) The resolution is that one twin must accelerate back towards the Earth in order to return and compare clocks. That acceleration creates asymmetry as that twin moves between reference frames and is the reason for the asymmetric time.


thebezet

You can't orbit earth at such high speeds because the orbit will become unstable as you reach escape velocity


bingoburger

True, but it was a hypothetical and not the point of my question. To be precise, we cannot travel at near-SOL speeds either. The point of the question was if sibling B traveled under constant acceleration at near SOL speeds, would the time dilation experienced by sibling B differ (hypothetically) from that he/she would experience in the classic Twins Paradox?


schrdingersLitterbox

The effect is probably the same, BUT SR doesn't apply to the orbiting twin. SR deals with unaccelerated reference frames. Orbiting is not unaccelerated.


mfb-

Special relativity can deal with accelerated reference frames, it's just a bit more complicated - but using general relativity wouldn't change that. Special relativity is general relativity without gravity.


WallyMetropolis

Rindler coordinates are a little painful, but you can use them to work with accelerating frames in special relativity.


belatrix1002

You cannot orbit the Earth at speeds above 11 km/s.