So the two planes fly at
The factor for each plane should be straightforward to compute,
but in practice may cause a problem with some calculators. For the
Red plane, we try
so
Second, again for
,
and thus
That means that we can turn the expression for into a form
that we can handle easily - as long as we keep expressing it as ``1
plus something''. Watch:
How long does it take the Red Plane, travelling around the world (a distance of about 40,000 km) at a speed of 710 m/s, to complete its journey? According to an observer motionless in space above the Earth's North Pole,
The difference between the two clocks will be
![]() |
![]() |
|
![]() |
||
![]() |
||
![]() |
||
![]() |
If you look at the papers describing this experiment, you'll see that the special relativistic effect indeed has roughly this size.
Michael Richmond 2003-12-05
Copyright © Michael Richmond.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.