## Thursday, 10 October 2019

### Question

A good approximation to the metric outside the surface of the Earth is provided by$${ds}^2=-\left(1+2\Phi\right){dt}^2+\left(1-2\Phi\right){dr}^2+r^2\left({d\theta}^2+\sin^2{\theta}{d\phi}^2\right)$$where$$\Phi=-\frac{GM}{r}$$may be thought of as the familiar Newtonian gravitational potential. Here $G$ is Newton's constant and $M$ is the mass of the Earth. For this problem $\Phi$ may be assumed to be small.
a) Imagine a clock on the surface of the Earth at a distance $R_1$ from the Earth's center, and another clock on a tall building at distance $R_2$ from the Earth's center. Calculate the time elapsed on each clock as a function of the coordinate time $t$. Which clock moves ticks faster?
b) Solve for a geodesic corresponding to a circular orbit around the equator of the Earth ($\theta=\pi/2$ ). What is $d\phi/dt$?
c) How much proper time elapses while a satellite at radius  $R_1$ (skimming along the surface of the Earth, neglecting air resistance) completes one orbit? You can work to  first order in $\Phi$ if you like. Plug in the actual numbers for the radius of the Earth and so on (don't forget to restore the speed of light) to get an answer in seconds. How does this number compare to the proper time elapsed on the clock stationary on the surface?

Apparently the metric given is the Newtonian metric. I learnt how to reinstate the speed of light $c$ and so do real calculations. I was brutally reminded that ${ds}^2=-{d\tau}^2$ where $\tau$ is the proper time and that the proper time is what appears on ideal clocks. I also found the Schwarzschild radius - the radius of the event horizon of a black hole with a given mass. Some time ago I had found two sample solutions which had been left lying around on the internet by careless professors. They have now gone but luckily I had downloaded them before. I found that they were both littered with errors! The worst was probably UCSB's who popped an extra question and got totally the wrong answer for gravitational time dilation on a GPS satellite. Lucky they weren't involved in the construction!  Finally I had a look to see if I  could do anything with elliptical orbits but then decided I had spent enough time on this exercise.