"The light minute has everything to do with being able to conclude are out of eachothers
lightcone. The only frame where the boxes would be opened simultaneously is the frame the
clocks were synched in."

Fred carrying the box away at less than light speed can NEVER get outside Elle's light cone. The idea that the light cone was limited to the distance light can traverse in one minute was an assumption of the thought experiment.

"You don't need to go through all that to conclude the reference frames changed when the
clocks were separated."


You said:

"I think you do."

No you don't. Something caused the clocks to no longer be a rest with respect to eachother. Generally this includes one clock being accelerated. Subsequently the clocks are no longer in the same inertial frame [the inertial frame was the clocks at rest with respect to eachother]. If they were they would remain synchronized.

A signal would allow you to calculate the value of the desynch in the clocks [the thought experiment did include the distance between Fred and Elle]. They were synched when Fred left. Elle notes when she did her thing. Elle receives the signal from Fred sent when he did his thing. Elle accounts for the time the signal took to traverse the distance and then determines how much delta between when she did her thing and Fred did his thing. This is the value of the desynch.

There have been many thought experiments claiming to show a paradox wrt relativity.

• How about we consider what we know at the two events... - harvey1 - October 3, 2003 - 15:18 UTC
  • The thought experiment... - bruce - October 3, 2003 - 20:53 UTC
    • Keep in mind.. - bruce - October 3, 2003 - 20:57 UTC
    • Isn't SR agnostic about these things? - harvey1 - October 3, 2003 - 22:11 UTC
      • I have to leave... - bruce - October 4, 2003 - 00:33 UTC