- #1
Agerhell
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Please bring me out of my state of confusion if I need to be... The question is how to calculate the rate of an atomic clock (a pendulum clock may work otherwise) on board a vehicle traveling along the surface of the Earth at constant altitude, like a bus, a train or an aeroplane. This was first tested by the Hafele-Keating experiment:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafele–Keating_experiment
As I interpret that experiment one has to use the centre of the Earth as a reference point when determing the rate of clocks on, or in the immediate surrounding of, the Earth.
For instance, at the Equator the Earth is spinning around its axis at about 40000/24 = 1667 kilometres per hour. So If you have a train at the equator traveling westwards the clocks on board that train would tick increasingly faster compared to the clock in a trainstation along the track until the train reaches a velocity of 1667 km/h compared to the surface of the earth. The clocks onboard the train will still tick faster than the clock in the trainstation even if the train travels west at a speed of 3300 km/h compared to the surface of the Earth.
This is because the train station will still have a slightly higher velocity compared to the centre of the Earth.
Is any other interpretation of the Hafele-Keating experiment possible? Sure one would always have to use the centre of the Earth as a reference point when determining the rates of clocks on or near the Earth? (Deliberately ignoring gravitational time dilation)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafele–Keating_experiment
As I interpret that experiment one has to use the centre of the Earth as a reference point when determing the rate of clocks on, or in the immediate surrounding of, the Earth.
For instance, at the Equator the Earth is spinning around its axis at about 40000/24 = 1667 kilometres per hour. So If you have a train at the equator traveling westwards the clocks on board that train would tick increasingly faster compared to the clock in a trainstation along the track until the train reaches a velocity of 1667 km/h compared to the surface of the earth. The clocks onboard the train will still tick faster than the clock in the trainstation even if the train travels west at a speed of 3300 km/h compared to the surface of the Earth.
This is because the train station will still have a slightly higher velocity compared to the centre of the Earth.
Is any other interpretation of the Hafele-Keating experiment possible? Sure one would always have to use the centre of the Earth as a reference point when determining the rates of clocks on or near the Earth? (Deliberately ignoring gravitational time dilation)