Equation 52 · Part 8 · The Bend an Elevator Cannot Fake
subtraction
subtraction
What this part means
Subtract the following term or group from the preceding one. A leading minus marks a negative quantity.
Its job in the formula
Subtract the following term or group from the preceding one. A leading minus marks a negative quantity.
Full expression→subtraction→Article meaning
The passage around this formula
Real terrestrial clocks are not simply static; they corotate with Earth, and their genuinely single-valued potential is the geopotential W() := - | |^2 , gravitational potential combined with the centrifugal term for Earth’s rotation rate . Because W is a smooth, single-valued function of position in the corotating frame for any fixed , folding it into the node potential := W/ preserves exact loop closure for any network of clocks that are themselves at rest relative to the rotating Earth — precisely the convention already standard in relativistic geodesy [ 4 , 3 ] .
Learn the underlying idea
Addition combines quantities; subtraction measures the signed difference between them. Parentheses show what is combined before the rest of the expression is evaluated.
Open the illustrated addition and subtraction in an equation guide →
Sources cited in the article section
- [10] Relativity in the Global Positioning System ↗
- [7] Test of Special Relativity Using a Fiber Network of Optical Clocks ↗
- [2] A Lab-Based Test of the Gravitational Redshift with a Miniature Clock Network ↗
These citations provide research context; check each source for the exact claim it supports.