No, The principle that ring-laser gyro's work under is that the signals are no longer in ophase when they arrive. This can be accomplished either by allowing them to arrive at different times, or by allowing them to experience a different passage of time during their travel.
For Hafele's clocks to show a difference in time passing, after they are brought back together, it does not actually matter whether the planes land at different times or even traveled at different speeds, because neither of which would affect the clocks. The solution probably has to do with the difference in gravity experienced by the planes, as the one traveling with the earth's rotation experiences a decrease in gravity (due to an increased centrepetal force) while the other plane experiences the opposite. --- "Stephen A. Lawrence" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Merlyn wrote: > > Actually, because the planes fly at equivalent > speeds > > WRT the Earth, which is a rotating frame of > reference, > > when they get back to the geographical starting > place > > (which has moved), they arrive at the same "local" > > time > > Not right. See below. > > > and according to Hafele's experimentally obtained > > data the clocks do not agree. > > But that's right. > > The problem with the first item is that the clocks > disagree by some tiny > amount -- say, a millionth of a second (I'm guessing > but probably > close). So, one of the two planes actually arrived > a microsecond before > the other one. > > Such a small difference in arrival times of physical > aircraft can't be > measured!! At 500 mph the nose of the plane moves > 0.009 inches in a > microsecond. Using any earthly measurement system > the planes will > _appear_ to arrive back at their starting points > simultaneously. > Indeed, the imprecision in the _starting_ locations > of the two aircraft > is surely many orders of magnitude larger than the > difference in the > location at which they actually met when they came > back to home base again. > > The only thing which _can_ be measured is the > difference in their clock > readings. That's straightforward by comparison -- > both planes land, and > you put the clocks next to each other and compare > them. Or do it by > radio before they land - either way it's easy. > > If you want to actually observe the fact that they > don't arrive back at > together at the starting point at the same moment, > you need to use > something smaller and more precise than aircraft, > like light pulses, > whose arrival time can be measured _precisely_. And > when that's done, > you do indeed observe that the arrival times, > according to local clocks, > are different. As I've already pointed out, that's > the principle on > which ring-laser gyros are based -- if it were not > true they would not work. > > Merlyn Magickal Engineer and Technical Metaphysicist __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
