The differential aging of inertial and non-inertial observers: The Eyewitness observations of a relativistic polygon traveler
The time dilation of non-inertial travelers in circular and polygonal closed paths are well known. In both cases observers completing a round trip will age less than an observer at rest with respect to the circle / polygon. This rapid aging is contrary to the slow aging that would be documented by temporarily comoving inertial observers who might also move along each edge of the polygon. A detailed description of what the non-inertial observer might actually see that would explain their own slow aging is presented. It is also argued that the non-inertial observer will disagree with the comoving inertial observers about the size of the diameter of the polygon. In particular, the non-inertial traveler will observer a Lorentz-like contraction of distances measured perpendicular to the direction of relative motion. As a result, the traveler will obtain a value of for the ratio of circumference to diameter, in contradiction to recently published work that predicts a measured ratio less than and a non-Euclidean geometry for the polygon traveler.