The International Atomic Time and the Velocity of Light

From Natural Philosophy Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Scientific Paper
Title The International Atomic Time and the Velocity of Light
Author(s) Franco Selleri
Keywords {{{keywords}}}
Published 2004
Journal Foundations of Physics
Volume 17
No. of pages 14
Pages 65-79

Abstract

Atomic clocks distributed around the world communicate with one another by means of radio signals. The synchronization signals sent by a transmitting station always reach the receiving station 'on time', at any hour of the day and in any season, despite the motion of the Earth. For some authors this means that these signals propagate isotropically (with one way velocity c), even with respect to the Earth surface. In fact this may not be so; we show that the proper working of the network says nothing about the one way velocity, as it is consistent with another theory, empirically (almost) equivalent to special relativity, in which the one way speed of light has a directional dependence in moving frames.