Another Twins Answer

Why should the twin on the spaceship be younger than the other on earth if each of them is supposed to observe the time dilation of the other in his own frame?

The question of which is younger when they are apart and in relative motion has no answer unless we specify the observer who is making the comparison (which could be either of them – or perhaps some other arbiter such as one who is stationary with respect to the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation).

Once they reunite they, and everyone else, will agree that the one who ends up younger is the one who experienced more acceleration towards the other when they were far apart (or more precisely for whom the integral of distance times the negative of its second derivative is greatest). But even though they will agree on the end result, they won’t agree on a moment-by-moment accounting of how their ageing rates compared.

Source: (1000) Alan Cooper’s answer to Why should the twin on the spaceship be younger than the other on earth if each of them is supposed to observe the time dilation of the other in his own frame? – Quora

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