Quote:
|
Originally Posted by captain swoop
ISn't time dilation taken into account by GPS?
|
Yes. It's not a separate mechanical/physical process. Note that there is a combination of gravitational and kinetic effects.
I've read that when the first GPS-related satellite was flown, there was some doubt (among the beancounters, presumably, and not the physicists) that any correction would be necessary, so the clocks were synchronized on the gotund, with the ability to tune an oscillator onboard. The satellite was launched, lo and behold, it was running at the wrong rate. The synthesizer frequency was changes to the preset value, and the clock output was then correct to 1%.