The Twin Paradox
Twin Paradox in Contact
In the movie Contact, Jodie Foster's character, Dr. Ellie Arroway, is the first to make contact with alien life forces. After many problems, including the government hijacking her research, she is also the first person to travel through space in an alien spaceship. At the end of the movie the twin paradox is portrayed as such; Dr. Arroway claims that her trip lasted 18 hours, but for the people on Earth the trip was a split second- it looked as if she fell straight through the middle of the ship. This portrayal of the twin paradox is backwards, it would have felt like 18 hours for the people on Earth and a split second for Dr. Arroway (since she is experiencing the time dilation).
To revise the script in order to make it right, one could say that the people of Earth waited 18 hours for her to return, and when she did she felt like the trip took a matter of seconds. Although, this would make for a very bland end to the movie.
The way I think would be correct to revise the script would be to still keep the trip as being 18 hours long, but have it feel like a matter of months or years for the people on Earth. This would allow the introduction of the people on Earth not knowing if it worked or if she was dead. Some characters could give up hope and believe her dead, and others could wait for her to get back. Then, when she returns there would be no question as to whether or not the trip took place.
Careful. "Dilated" time is always the longer time; that's why the word dilated is used. It means wider or larger. That's the time experienced by the observers on Earth. Ellie measures the shorter time. In other words, her clock ticks off less time. That's the proper time.
ReplyDeleteTrue, your ending takes the drama out of the movie. No one doubts in that scenario that she took an extraordinary journey. How could you put some drama back in and still get the physics correct?