Viking 1 - Test of General Relativity

Test of General Relativity

Gravitational time dilation is a phenomenon predicted by the theory of General Relativity whereby time passes differently in regions of different gravitational potential. Scientists used the lander to test this hypothesis, by sending radio signals to the lander on Mars, and instructing the lander to send back signals. Scientists then found that the observed signals matched the predictions of the theory of General Relativity; see Shapiro delay.

Read more about this topic:  Viking 1

Famous quotes containing the words test of, test, general and/or relativity:

    The test of literature is, I suppose, whether we ourselves live more intensely for the reading of it.
    Elizabeth Drew (1887–1965)

    The face we see was never young,
    Nor could it ever have been old.

    For he, to whom we had applied
    Our shopman’s test of age and worth,
    Was elemental when he died,
    As he was ancient at his birth:
    Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935)

    That sort of half sigh, which, accompanied by two or three slight nods of the head, is pity’s small change in general society.
    Charles Dickens (1812–1870)

    By an application of the theory of relativity to the taste of readers, to-day in Germany I am called a German man of science, and in England I am represented as a Swiss Jew. If I come to be regarded as a bĂȘte noire the descriptions will be reversed, and I shall become a Swiss Jew for the Germans and a German man of science for the English!
    Albert Einstein (1879–1955)