gps satellites relativity
Does radiometric dating say that rocks at higher elevations are slightly older because of General Relativity?
I didn’t know if it would be significant to cause an effect, and because they calculate a confidence interval for radiometric dating. Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity says that the closer you get to a source of gravitation, the slower time runs. A GPS satellite has to correct for General Relativity and Special Relativity by 38 microseconds/day (GPS time runs 38 microseconds faster on average than on the surface of the Earth and they have to set the GPS clock wrong to make up for it). I know that rocks at higher altitudes don’t have so much of a difference in altitude, but I was curious if General Relativity affects radiometric dating?
GPS satellites are a lot higher up than even the top of Mount Everest.
Let’s look at the maths – assuming GPS time-differences as a “worst case” scenario:
39 microseconds/day is about 14 milliseconds/year.
In a million years that makes 14000 seconds, or about 3.9 hours.
An error of a few hours in a million years is a lot less than the uncertainty in radiometric dating.
Conclusion: No correction is necessary.