Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: Demos, simulations, and activities for Modern Physics



I too have a GPS receiver and I have great fun with it but how do you
use it to introduce relativity other than to say (but not demo) that
the precision required (and available) is so great that a relativity
correction has to be programed into the computer?

You can demonstrate its accuracy and point out (and calculate) that it
would not be capable of such accuracy if the GR timekeeping difference
due to gravitational potential difference were not taken into account.
(See a recent issue of Mercury for even more GR details.)

The SR part is in recognizing that four satellites are necessary to
determine a point in spacetime, and that the calculation is simple.

Leigh