In 1971 Joseph Hafele and Richard Keating arranged for two atomic clocks to be flown around the Earth in different directions. The Theory of Objectivity described by Konstantin Meyl gives better fit to the published data than does the Theory of Relativity from Einstein.
Caesium clocks were sent in planes around the Earth, one travelling westwards and one travelling East. When the clocks were re-united, the times were compared with those of each other and with that of a third clock that had remained stationary.
The two travelling clocks have moved against gravity and have undergone some acceleration and deceleration They have moved from one inertial frame of reference to another and have spent considerable time flying in a slightly diminished gravitational field according to altitude.
According to the theories of both Special and General Relativity then we would expect both clocks to have gained time relative to the stationary clock and we would expect that each travelling clock to read the same time as there is no meaningful difference between their paths according to Einstein.
The actual published results however, show that although the Westward travelling clock did gain time, the Eastward travelling clock actually lost time.
This result was claimed to be consistent with the theories of relativity and even put forth as ‘confirming’ them.
Konstantin Meyl begs to differ and gives an alternative explanation.
Full details can be found in Meyl’s book “Scalar Waves” but this screenshot gives part of his calculations as to the predicted difference between clock times:
Now comparing the measured difference in times with table 1. we find that:
273 – 59 = 214 (Measured difference quoted by Meyl)
but
273 – (-59) = 273 + 59 = 232 (Difference calculated from Table 1)
So Meyl has missed out the negative sign and miscalculated. The true difference in clock times is 232 nano-seconds; even bigger than calculated.
To summarize then:
- 232 ns Measured difference
- 207 ns Predicted by Meyl
- 0 Predicted by Einstein.
How was this missed? The answer is that they simply were not looking for it. The experiment was not performed to measure the difference between the clocks but to measure the difference between the travelling clocks and the stationary clock.
Relativity predicts a difference in clock times according to acceleration, and altered gravitational fields so these were the results that interested them.
So what is the explanation? Complicated, but according to the Theory of Objectivity, measurements are made relative to some field and quantities previously thought of as absolute (time, length, speed of light..) are now a function of field strength.
The clocks were flying around the Earth in different directions and so the Eastward flying clock was travelling with the spin of the Earth and was hence flying faster. It was therefore subjected to a greater centrifugal force acting against gravity and this affected the workings of the atoms.
So whereas the theory of relativity gives time dilation as an explanation for clocks going wrong, we have here an alternative mechanism whereby it is length contraction that alters the workings of an atomic clock.
Meyl: “The reason for the measured difference in going is seen in the field and here specially in the different gravitational field. The centrifugal force directed opposite to the gravitational force at least is not the same, because for a westward flight along the equator the speed of the plane should be subtracted from the velocity of rotation of the earth, whereas in eastward direction it should be added.
“For the steering quanta supplied by the caesium resonator now the energy balance is put up and the change of the reference frequency is calculated. With the change in frequency is connected directly a change of the at the two clocks readable times. For a journey around half the earth, where one clock is flown westwards and the other one eastwards, the difference in going should, according to the calculation, amount to 207ns. Interesting of the result undoubtedly is, that the velocity of the planes doesn”t play a role. It is cancelled out.” – Scalar Waves p. 271
References:
Hafele-Keating experiment
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafele%E2%80%93Keating_experiment
Scalar Waves – 13.2 The clock paradox – Konstantin Meyl
https://avalonlibrary.net/Nikola_Tesla/Books/Meyl%20-%20Scalar%20Waves%20(First%20Tesla%20Physics%20Textbook).pdf