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: round the world clock experiment



The GR correction is actually larger than, and of opposite sign from,
the required SR correction. Clocks in GPS orbits run faster than their
counterparts on Earth's surface. The GR correction was also made in
the analysis of the original flying clock experiment. I have heard,
but cannot document, the story that when GPS was conceived the idea
that GR corrections would be negligible was assumed. That error was
corrected by Carroll O. Alley before the system went into operation.

Leigh

On Jan 30, 2004, at 1:00 AM, David Bowman wrote:

The GPS system is an ongoing demonstration of this SR effect. The
only main difference is that the orbiting atomic clocks are not
brought to rest w.r.t. the earth's surface after each orbit and don't
start from rest on the earth's surface at the beginning of each
orbit. Another effect is that there is also a GR correction due to
the difference in gravitational potential between the orbiting clocks
and the ground-based clocks.

The GPS system is the still the only commonly/popularly used
technological development that *requires* GR corrections to make it
work properly.

David Bowman