My question is Is acceleration relative? My motivation for asking this question

Question

My question is Is acceleration relative?

My motivation for asking this question is based on the well knownTwin paradox described in Special Relativity. Inparticular, it has been said that the twin paradox is resolvedbecause one of the twins (ie the one on the spaceship) travelsthrough 3 different inertial frames before returning to the Earthto re-unit with now older twin.

Naturally from the above, one would think we could conclude thatacceleration must hence be relative, otherwise the twin on thespaceship could conclude that they are in a single inertial frame,while the other goes through three different inertial frames. Butthis leads to a paradox.

I agree with the above argument. However not everyone agrees withthis, and I was told by none other than Senior research scientistat Fermi Lab and author Don Lincoln, that I'm flat out wrong.

Could someone please explain?

Explanation / Answer

When we sa that velocity is relative we mean that it is not morecorrect to say that I move than my soroundings. You can not make an experiment in physics that says Block A is moving, butBlock B is at rest. In principle someone could have moved the wholeworld except Block A. This is not the case with acceleration. Youdo feel if you are being accelerated. You do not feel velocity.Acceleration is not relative.

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