The Hafele-Keating Experiment: A Groundbreaking Test of Time Dilation
In 1971, physicists Joseph C. Hafele and Richard E. Keating conducted an experiment that provided one of the most compelling confirmations of Einstein's Theory of Relativity—specifically, the phenomenon of time dilation. Known as the Hafele-Keating Experiment, it involved flying atomic clocks around the world on commercial airliners and comparing them with stationary atomic clocks on the ground. The results were groundbreaking: the clocks aboard the airplanes showed measurable differences in time compared to those on the ground, confirming Einstein’s predictions about how motion and gravity affect time. (more…)