Clock hypothesis

The clock hypothesis is an assumption in special relativity. It states that the rate of a clock doesn't depend on its acceleration but only on its instantaneous velocity. This is equivalent to stating, that a clock moving along a path P measures the proper time, defined by:

$d \tau = \int_P \sqrt {dt^2 - dx^2/c^2 - dy^2/c^2 - dz^2/c^2}$.

The clock hypothesis was not explicitly included in Einstein's original 1905 formulation of special relativity. Since then, it has become a standard assumption and is usually included in the axioms of special relativity, especially in the light of experimental verification up to very high accelerations in particle accelerators.

References

• S.R. Mainwaring, G.E. Stedman, Accelerated Clock Principles in Special Relativity. Physical Review A47 (1993) 3611–3619.
• R. Anderson, I. Vetharaniam, G.E. Stedman, Conventionality of Synchronization, Gauge Dependence and Test Theories of Relativity., Physics Reports 295 (1998) 94–180.
• A.M. Eisele, On the Behavior of an Accelerated Clock, Helvetica Physica Acta 60 (1987) 1024–1037.
• P. Mittelstaedt, H. Heintzmann, Laws of Physics in Accelerated Reference Frames (German), in Springer Tracts in Modern Physics (G. Höhler, ed.) 47 (1968) 185-225.

External links

• "Does a clock's acceleration affect its timing rate?", from the USENET Physics FAQ