Abstract
Although the twin paradox is as old as the special theory of relativity itself, understanding of its resolution is often obscured by student's miscarried intuition. That is usually a result of an incomplete understanding of some predictions of the theory or of its range of validity. In this article, we present a didactic solution to the problem aiming at elucidating some understanding gaps. Discussing the precise content of the time dilation predicted by special relativity, we eliminate a first intuition that might suggest the existence of a paradox. Then we show why special relativity alone is enough to solve the problem without any need to invoke the general theory of relativity. We conclude this work presenting a solution to the twin paradox from the point of view of the stationary twin as well as from the traveling twin.
Keywords:
Twin paradox; time dilation; special relativity
