Hafele–Keating experiment
E176981
The Hafele–Keating experiment was a 1971 test of Einstein’s theory of relativity in which atomic clocks were flown around the world on commercial airliners and compared with stationary clocks to measure time dilation effects.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Hafele–Keating experiment canonical | 8 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1564877 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Hafele–Keating experiment Context triple: [Ives–Stilwell experiment, relatedTo, Hafele–Keating experiment]
-
A.
Ives–Stilwell experiment
The Ives–Stilwell experiment is a classic test of special relativity that measured the relativistic Doppler effect to confirm time dilation for fast-moving ions.
-
B.
Kennedy–Thorndike experiment
The Kennedy–Thorndike experiment is a classic test of special relativity that examined the constancy of the speed of light using an interferometer with unequal arm lengths and varying laboratory velocity.
-
C.
Michelson–Morley experiment
The Michelson–Morley experiment was a landmark 1887 physics experiment that attempted to detect the Earth's motion through the hypothesized luminiferous aether and whose null result helped pave the way for Einstein's theory of special relativity.
-
D.
Trouton–Noble experiment
The Trouton–Noble experiment was an early 20th-century test of the luminiferous aether that searched for a torque on a charged capacitor in motion and, by finding no such effect, provided support for the emerging theory of special relativity.
-
E.
Cavendish experiment
The Cavendish experiment was an 18th-century physics experiment by Henry Cavendish that measured the tiny gravitational attraction between lead spheres, allowing the first calculation of the gravitational constant and the mass of the Earth.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Hafele–Keating experiment Target entity description: The Hafele–Keating experiment was a 1971 test of Einstein’s theory of relativity in which atomic clocks were flown around the world on commercial airliners and compared with stationary clocks to measure time dilation effects.
-
A.
Ives–Stilwell experiment
The Ives–Stilwell experiment is a classic test of special relativity that measured the relativistic Doppler effect to confirm time dilation for fast-moving ions.
-
B.
Kennedy–Thorndike experiment
The Kennedy–Thorndike experiment is a classic test of special relativity that examined the constancy of the speed of light using an interferometer with unequal arm lengths and varying laboratory velocity.
-
C.
Michelson–Morley experiment
The Michelson–Morley experiment was a landmark 1887 physics experiment that attempted to detect the Earth's motion through the hypothesized luminiferous aether and whose null result helped pave the way for Einstein's theory of special relativity.
-
D.
Trouton–Noble experiment
The Trouton–Noble experiment was an early 20th-century test of the luminiferous aether that searched for a torque on a charged capacitor in motion and, by finding no such effect, provided support for the emerging theory of special relativity.
-
E.
Cavendish experiment
The Cavendish experiment was an 18th-century physics experiment by Henry Cavendish that measured the tiny gravitational attraction between lead spheres, allowing the first calculation of the gravitational constant and the mass of the Earth.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (44)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
physics experiment
ⓘ
test of general relativity ⓘ test of special relativity ⓘ time dilation experiment ⓘ |
| comparedWith | stationary atomic clocks ⓘ |
| country | United States of America ⓘ |
| demonstrated |
dependence of clock rates on speed and altitude
ⓘ
non-absolute nature of time ⓘ |
| field |
physics
ⓘ
relativity ⓘ |
| hasMeasuredQuantity | nanosecond-level time differences ⓘ |
| hasPart |
eastward circumnavigation flight
ⓘ
westward circumnavigation flight ⓘ |
| influenced | development of GPS time correction practices ⓘ |
| location | around the world ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
relativistic time difference
ⓘ
time dilation ⓘ |
| measuredEffect |
time dilation due to gravitational potential
ⓘ
time dilation due to velocity ⓘ |
| namedAfter |
Joseph C. Hafele
ⓘ
Richard E. Keating ⓘ |
| performedBy |
Joseph C. Hafele
ⓘ
Richard E. Keating ⓘ |
| platform | commercial airliner ⓘ |
| publicationDate | 1972 ⓘ |
| publishedIn | Science (journal) ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Lorentz transformation
ⓘ
global positioning system ⓘ
linked to:
GPS
gravitational time dilation ⓘ twin paradox ⓘ |
| result | measured time differences agreed with relativistic predictions within experimental error ⓘ |
| significance | provided empirical support for relativistic time dilation ⓘ |
| startTime | 1971 ⓘ |
| testedTheory |
Einstein's theory of relativity
ⓘ
linked to:
theory of relativity
general relativity ⓘ special relativity ⓘ |
| travelDirection |
eastward around the world
ⓘ
westward around the world ⓘ |
| usedMethod |
comparison of elapsed proper time
ⓘ
transporting synchronized clocks on aircraft ⓘ |
| uses |
atomic clock
ⓘ
cesium-beam atomic clock ⓘ |
| verificationOf |
predictions of general relativity for clocks at different gravitational potentials
ⓘ
predictions of special relativity for moving clocks ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Hafele–Keating experiment Description of subject: The Hafele–Keating experiment was a 1971 test of Einstein’s theory of relativity in which atomic clocks were flown around the world on commercial airliners and compared with stationary clocks to measure time dilation effects.
Referenced by (8)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.