Donald & Elon

 Lodz, Poland, December 2025

In scientific examples like the one below, Alice and Bob usually appear. However, the letters D and E are also consecutive in the alphabet, and they have been used here for that reason only. It probably goes without saying that any associations with public figures currently living on our planet are an overinterpretation that should not be applied.

Donald and Elon were twins interested in science. One day they argued about special relativity. Elon claimed that it was false, while Donald held the opposite view. Finally, a bet with significant stakes was made between them. In case of failure, Elon was to give his brother the latest super clock produced by his company, and Donald, confident of winning, offered a peace prize statuette that he had once received.

Einstein's theory predicts that if two twins separate and one of them travels at high speed, he will be younger than his brother when they meet again. So Elon got into a spaceship manufactured by his company and started flying. When the onboard AI informed him that, according to this theory, he was 8 hours younger than his brother, he returned to New York. Donald was just finishing breakfast on the terrace of his skyscraper. They greeted each other warmly, after which Elon blurted out:
   "I'm now supposed to be 8 hours younger than you."
   "So you have lost?"
   "But I'm not."
   "How do you know that?"
   "I see you're wearing a nice watch on your wrist. Where did you get it?" replied Elon with a question.
   "I bought it from the Chinese."
   "Is it running well?" 
   "Perfectly."
   "Well, let's compare it with the date and time shown on my super clock that I had with me during the flight."
Elon pulled a thick watch out of his pocket and handed it to his brother. Donald compared the readings and said sadly:
   "They are identical."
   "You see."
Donald was already getting up from the chair to give his brother the award when suddenly Elon overdid it by saying:
   "Besides, it's ten in the morning now. Eight hours ago it was two in the morning. If I were younger than you, I wouldn't be able to see now that a small cloud has covered the sun."
   "Is this the modern timepiece I was supposed to receive?" Donald sank into the chair as he started to suspect something.
   "Yes, in fact."
   “It's a bit thick... How does it work?"
   "This is an electronic sundial. It observes the sun and therefore knows exactly what time it is."
   "But you have taken it out of your pocket?!"
   "It records solar neutrinos."
   "And this is astronomical time!" exclaimed Donald with satisfaction. "It doesn't count."
   "Astronomical time is the most important."
   "It absolutely doesn't count."
   "Listen, if your watch were a minute slow each day, would you wear it on your wrist?"asked Elon.
   "Of course not, I would throw out that junk immediately."
   "So astronomical time is also the most important for you."
   "I read about it. This is just about something that ticks. I'd love to take that cool device of yours, but it doesn't tick."
   "Have you heard about the Lorentz transformation?"
   "Sure!" Donald got offended.
   "There's nothing about ticking in its definition. It determines what correct time different observers assign to events. If the Lorentz transformation resulted in a slowdown of time, this would also apply to the most correct one. And astronomical time, as you can see, shows no sign of slowing down."
   Donald frowned, thinking hard.
   "Maybe you're right," he said at last. "But explain to me why so many people haven't thought of this? Why did everyone say that the transformation implies the twin effect and that time di..."
   "time dilation," suggested Elon.
   "Exactly. And apparently, they even conducted some experiments to confirm it..."
   "Yes, with the decay of particles. It is indeed delayed, although those particles don't tick either."
   "I don't understand..." Donald looked at his brother helplessly.
   "In that case, take a look at the latest scientific paper." Elon pulled out his smartphone. "Everything is explained here."
Donald scrolled the screen, then went to the cabinet and handed the trophy he had taken out to his brother.
   "There is an important thing." Apparently, he wanted to change the subject. "My people have reported to me that we are..."

The triplet paradox

More advanced humans can read the paper Contradictory Special... that convinced Donald, as well as a very surprising continuation Contradictory Contraction... . For others, we provide a summary. It turned out that Donald and Elon were actually triplets, but the third brother was separated from his siblings shortly after birth and taken to a distant country. He had neither power nor money, but he also had an extraordinary property: he was able to solve the most difficult problems. Now Zbig has returned to help the brothers fight the ruthless villain known as Triplet Paradox.

In the end, everything turns out well. The nasty Triplet Paradox is defeated, though by the way the nice triplets (Donald a bit by accident) disprove special relativity. The good Zbig takes pity on all the twins in the world and transfers time dilation and the twin effect to a new theory that does not contain logical contradictions and precisely determines which clocks are running late.