The DOI matches its Crossref record.
Around-the-World Atomic Clocks: Predicted Relativistic Time Gains
Abstract
During October 1971, four cesium beam atomic clocks were flown on regularly scheduled commercial jet flights around the world twice, once eastward and once westward, to test Einstein's theory of relativity with macroscopic clocks. From the actual flight paths of each trip, the theory predicts that the flying clocks, compared with reference clocks at the U.S. Naval Observatory, should have lost 40 ± 23 nanoseconds during the eastward trip, and should have gained 275 ± 21 nanoseconds during the westward trip. The observed time differences are presented in the report that follows this one.
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The Hafele and Keating experiment verified the gravitational redshift effect with an accuracy of around 12%.
“This eventually led to the famous test of Hafele and Keating [10, 11], who flew four caesium beam clocks around the world on commercial jet flights during October 1971. They predicted and measured the desynchronization of the proper times of these commercial atomic clocks with respect to the USNO atomic scale, and thus verified the gravitational redshift effect with an accuracy of around 12% 2 .”
From Chronometric Geodesy: Methods and Applications (2019) · cites this paper as [10]
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Research works printed but not linked: 12
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- HAFELE, J.C., RELATIVISTIC BEHAVIOUR OF MOVING TERRESTRIAL CLOCKS, NATURE 227: 270 (1970). · DOI
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- SCHLEGEL, R, NATURE-PHYSICAL SCIENCE 229: 237 (1971).
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Metadata
- Authors
- Hafele, J. C., & Keating, R. E.
- Affiliations
- Washington University in St. Louis (US)
- Time Service Division, U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C. 20390
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 1972-07-14
- Volume
- 177
- Issue
- 4044
- Pages
- 166-168
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- OpenAlex
- W2077773456
- Cited by
- 565
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 20 · 2025: 29 · 2024: 53 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 26 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 21 · 2015: 27 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 21 · 2012: 18
- FWCI
- 5.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Advanced Frequency and Time Standards
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Relativity and Gravitational Theory
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Networks and Communications › Network Time Synchronization Technologies
- Keywords
- special relativity, general relativity, time dilation
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