Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: system on 09/08/2011 23:30:03

Title: Does Earth's rotation alter flight times?
Post by: system on 09/08/2011 23:30:03

Does Earth’s rotation alter flight times?
Because the earth is spinning, if you take off from one place and fly in the same or opposite direction to that in which the Earth is turning, what impact does that have on the time it takes you to fly somewhere? What about the fact that the airplane is moving?  Is there a relativity effect because the airplane is moving faster than the people who are on the ground?

-Bansi
Asked by Bansi

                                        Visit the webpage for the podcast in which this question is answered. (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/podcasts/show/2011.08.07/)
[chapter podcast=3391 track=11.08.07/Naked_Scientists_Show_11.08.07_8821.mp3](https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenakedscientists.com%2FHTML%2Ftypo3conf%2Fext%2Fnaksci_podcast%2Fgnome-settings-sound.gif&hash=f2b0d108dc173aeaa367f8db2e2171bd)  ...or Listen to the Answer[/chapter] or [download as MP3] (http://nakeddiscovery.com/downloads/split_individual/11.08.07/Naked_Scientists_Show_11.08.07_8821.mp3)

Title: Does Earth's rotation alter flight times?
Post by: Soul Surfer on 10/08/2011 19:06:42

All relativistic effects are far too small to be detected without extremely precise measuring equipment accurate to picoseconds.  There are two effects one due to the altitude causing a reduction in gravitational red shift and one due to velocity.  These have been measured several times using atomic clocks and the compensations for this effect are built into the GPS system.

Title: Does Earth's rotation alter flight times?
Post by: Geezer on 10/08/2011 20:57:08

Well, it sure makes a difference to flight times when you fly East to West rather than West to East, and that effect is a function of the Earth's rotation [;D]