Physics education research, electronic materials, and the musings of Christopher Moore, Ph.D.

No two clocks are the same. Why? Each clock has different energy store and if two clocks run for any given amount of time, each clock can have only so many ticks - it would exhaust its energy store otherwise.

But if two clocks can have different number of clicks (they can have no more, not even in principle), then they cannot measure time of random event equally.

I've made a postulate that change in clock rate in two frames of reference is proportional to this fundamental probability that they can measure time equally.

Please take a look at my theory about this very issue:

http://toph.synthasite.com

It doesn't answer the question 'What is time', but it does say that time is expressed as best possible clock and that change in time depends on probability to measure it equally.

And different observers have different clocks.

Therefore, two observers do not have the same probability to measure time.

I postulate that:

"Rate of a moving clock at speed V (relative to at-rest clock) is equivalent to relativistic rate at speed V*P, where P is probability that time of random event can be measured equally by both clocks."

In other words, if I can't (not even in principle) measure time in the moving train as good the person in the train, then I can't say there is  equal change in clock rate either.

Or put it this way:

Imagine Joe is standing next to the railroad. A high-speed train is passing by him. Joanne is in the train and has a clock with 1/10th of a second precision. Joe's clock has only up-to a second precision.
Let us say these clocks are the best Joe and Joanne can have.
Joe is taking measurements for some time. In that time, Joe will see train go from point A to point B. Joe watches the clock's display in the train go from TA to TB.
But Joe needs to take measurements of time of train's events down to a tenth of a second, in order to be able to measure time with the same accuracy as Joanne inside (remember her clock has 1/10th of a second precision!).
What would make Joe's measurement more precise?
What if Joe could somehow make the train suddenly appear as if it's a slow motion movie, at 1/10th of normal speed? Everything that is happening in the train now becomes slower.
Now, Joe could take his time measurement with exactly the same precision as Joanne!
Finally, for Joe to see the clock in the train go from TA to TB, a train has to move 1/10th of its original speed.
So, for Joe to be able to observe time in the train equally well as Joanne, the velocity of the train would have to be multiplied by a factor of 1/10 ( the actual value is not 1/10 but close to it).
So for time measurement to be equal, the velocity of the train would have to come down (and consequently mute relativistic effects).

See FAQ on this:

http://toph.synthasite.com/faq.php