Experiment

Experiment

Table 7.1 Independent experiments bearing on Special Relativity – descriptions and years

Experiment

Description

Year

Bradley

Discovery of aberration of light

1728

Fresnel

Light suffers drag from the local medium

1817

Airy

Aberration independent of the local medium

1871

Michelson-Morley

Speed of light independent of Earth’s orbital motion

1881

De Sitter

Speed of light independent of speed of source

1913

Sagnac

Speed of light depends on rotational speed

1913

Kennedy-Thorndike

Measured time also affected by motion

1932

Ives-Stilwell

Ions radiate at frequencies affected by their motion

1941

Frisch-Smith

Radioactive decay of mesons is slowed by motion

1963

Hafele-Keating

Atomic clock changes depend on Earth’s rotation

1972

GPS

Clocks in all frames continuously synchronized

1997

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