Global Positioning System

How fast-moving clocks tick differently?

Global Positioning System

How fast-moving clocks tick differently?

Imagine you're flying across the country with a friend who lives on the ground. You both have atomic clocks, but when you land, your clock shows a slightly different time than your friend's.

As you fly faster, time moves slower for you compared to your friend on Earth. This difference is called time dilation, a concept from Einstein's theory of relativity.

Example

If you flew for 10 hours according to your clock, but only 9.8 hours passed for your friend, that's time dilation in action.

Remember this

Without adjusting for time dilation, GPS systems would be off by miles, making them useless for navigation.

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