Alexander Hollins wrote: >> The meson data is consistent with the predictions made using SR, >> and so >> can be viewed as supporting it. Other interpretations are certainly >> possible, however, and this experiment, alone, certainly doesn't >> *prove*that time dilation occurs; to claim so is to step way >> outside the bounds >> of correct interpretation of the results. (This experiment *does* >> disprove the null hypothesis, which is that there's nothing at all >> "funny" going on with the meson half-lives.) >> >> The "failure to prove the theory" is true of any individual >> experiment,of course -- you can always find another theory which is >> also not >> disproved by a particular experiment. The trick, if you want to >> replaceSR with something else, is to find a theory which is not >> disproved by >> *any* of the experiments which have been performed (and replicated). >> That's harder than you might think. > (copy and paste from the archives, as during my switch, i was not > getting emails) > > Well, i thought they did experiments with highly accurate atomic > clocks, set dead on, and accelerated through very high speed planes > for several trips round the world, and had the same... wait... atomic > clocks, based on half lifes. > > hmmm.
AFAIK the experiment using "atomic clocks" on airplanes has been done just once, and used clocks flown on commercial airliners for two single trips around the world, going in opposite directions. (At least I think they used counter-revolving planes -- it's been a while since I read about it and I'm not sure at this point; they may have used just one trip and compared the traveling clocks to a set of ground based clocks.) My understanding is that they used cesium clocks, and the cesium clocks actually use the characteristic absorbtion/radiance of microwaves by the cesium atoms: http://www.britannica.com/clockworks/t_atomic.html http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/cesium.html There's no nuclear decay involved. The experiment may have been replicated using different clocks and/or faster (military) planes, but I don't know of any such replication.
