Like GPS? Thank Relativity

In 1971—16 years after Einstein's death—the definitive experiment to test Einstein's relativity was finally carried out. It required not a rocket launch but eight round-the-world plane tickets that cost the United States Naval Observatory, funded by taxpayers, a total of $7,600. The brainchild of Joseph Hafele (Washington University in St. Louis) and Richard Keating (United States Naval Observatory) were "Mr. Clocks," passengers on four round-the-world flights. (Since the Mr. Clocks were quite large, they were required to purchase two tickets per flight. The accompanying humans, however, took up only one seat each as they sat next to their attention-getting companions.) The Mr. Clocks had all been synchronized with the atomic clock standards at the Naval Observatory before flight. They were, in effect, the "twins" (or quadruplets, in this case) from Einstein's famous twin paradox, wherein one twin leaves Earth and travels nearly at the speed of light. Upon returning home, ...