University of Wyoming American Heritage Center
12637
Hafele, Joseph Carl
Joseph Carl Hafele papers
1955-2014
7.00 cubic ft. (7 boxes) + 903 MB
Joseph Carl Hafele was an American physicist, known for the Hafele–Keating experiment. Collection contains manuscript materials, correspondence, newspaper clippings, financial records, research files, technical drawings, books, photographs, and artifacts regarding Joseph C. Hafele and the Hafele–Keating experiment.
English
Biography of Joseph Carl Hafele
Joseph Carl Hafele was an American physicist, known for the Hafele–Keating experiment. In 1971, Joseph C. Hafele and Richard E. Keating, an astronomer, tested Einstein's theory of general relativity by taking four caesium-beam atomic clocks aboard commercial airliners and flying twice around the world. First, they flew eastward, then westward, and compared the clocks in motion to stationary clocks at the United States Naval Observatory. When reunited, the three sets of clocks were found to disagree with one another, and their differences were consistent with the predictions of special and general relativity.
Joseph Carl Hafele was born on July 25, 1933, in Peoria, Illinois, the son of Carl Louis Hafele and Thelma Loeb Hafele. In 1951, after serving in the US Army, he attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, receiving his BS in engineering physics in 1959 and his PhD in nuclear physics in 1962. He married Carol Hessling in 1958, and they had four daughters. After graduation in 1964, he worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he conducted research in particle physics. From 1966–1972, he was a physics faculty member at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. From 1972 until retirement in 1996, Hafele conducted some developments for Caterpillar Inc., lectured at Eureca College (1985–1991), was a visiting researcher for NASA at Langley AFB in Hampton, Virginia, and lectured at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia. After retirement Hafele and his wife, Carol, moved to Laramie, Wyoming, where he continued theoretical work on the interpretation of experiments that might indicate anomalies in relativity. Joseph C. Hafele passed away on November 15, 2014, at 81 years old.
Scope and Content
Collection contains manuscript materials, correspondence, newspaper clippings, financial records, research files, technical drawings, books, photographs, and artifacts regarding Joseph C. Hafele and the Hafele–Keating experiment.
There are no access restrictions on the materials for research purposes,
and the collection is open to the public.
Copyright Information
The researcher assumes full responsibility for observing all copyright,
property, and libel laws as they apply.
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Item Description, Box Number, Folder Number, Collection Name, Collection
Number, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
This material was received from Carol A. Hafele from 2016-2022.
The collection was processed by Jamie J. Greene in September 2024.
There are no known other archival collections created by Joseph Carl Hafele at the date of processing.
Access Terms
Physics -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- United States
Relativity (Physics) -- Experiments
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Education
Colleges and Universities
Science
Series I. Hafele–Keating Experiment - Physics Research
7Artifacts:
7Unidentified inventionundated
7Clockundated
1Books:
1"An Introduction to the Theory of Relativity" by W.G.V. Rosser1971
1"Documents on Modern Physics - The Theoretical Significance of Experimental Relativity" by R.H. Dicke1965
1"Essential Relativity: Special, General, and Cosmological" by Wolfgang Rindler1969
1"The Evolution of Physics from Early Concepts to Relativity and Quanta" by Albert Einstein and Leopold Infield1967
1"The Future of Time: Man's Temporal Environment" edited by Henri Yaker, Humphry Osmond, and Frances Cheek1971
1"Gravitation and Cosmology: Principles and Applications of the General Theory of the Relativity" by Steven Weinberg1972
1"Handbook on Relativistic Time Transfer" by Robert A. Nelson2001 and 2003
1"Introduction to Special Relativity" by Robert Resnick1968
1"Introduction to the Theory of Error" by Yardley Beers1957
1"Introductory Relativity" by W.G. V. Rosser1967
1"The Library of Living Philosophers - Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist" edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp1970
1"Relativity and Common Sense: A New Approach to Einstein" by Hermann Bondi1964
1"Relativity and Cosmology" by H.P. Robertson and Thomas W. Noonan1968
1"Space Time and Gravitation: An Outline of the General Relativity Theory" by Sir Arthur Eddington1968
1"The Special Theory of Relativity" by David Bohm1965
1"The Voices of Time: A Cooperative Survey of Man's Views of Time as Expressed by the Sciences and by the Humanities" edited by J.T. Fraser 1966
1Correspondence: Professional1971-2014
1-4Manuscripts:1970-2013
1An Empirical Resolution of The Relativistic Clock Paradox1970-1971
1RIDE paper (draft)1991-1992
2Time-Retarded Coulomb's Law for a Circularly Moving Sourceundated
2Manuscript drafts and correspondence to Patrick - Articles by Joseph Carl Hafele 2009-2013
2Joseph C. Hafele documents2006-2010
2-4Manuscript drafts and correspondence (#1-20)1989-2014
4Newspaper clippings1971-2014
4Publications:1964-2002
4The Abraham Zelmanov Journal, volumes 1 and 52008 and 2012
4Magazines1971-1994
4-5Miscellaneous printed materials (7 folders)1955-2012
5Progress in Physics, volumes 2 and 42013
5Reviews of Modern Physics, Volume 39, Number 2April 1967
5Saunders Short Tables: Mathematical and Physical Tables for Students1967
5-6Research Files:
5 and Digitalahcdm_12637_001Around the World Clocks - Computation Note Book2005
5AVG Files2014
5Central Limit Theoremundated
5Charter.net2014
5JCH Patents1977-1985
5Miscellaneous research1955-2014
5Near Field Gravity of Rotating Objectsundated
5Physics1983-1996
5Relativistic Behavior of Moving Terrestrial Clocks1970-1971
5Shnoll Effect2014
5Tech Support2013-2014
5Winkler alleyundated
6Records (6 note ledgers)1988-1991
Series II. Personal Papers
6Awards/Certificates1957-1990
6Artifacts: Graduation cap1964
6Business Cardsundated
6Christopher Newport University1994-1996
6Correspondence: personal1971-2003
6Dissertation/Thesis, Ph.D. : "Proton Capture Radiation From Ca40 In The Region of The Giant Resonance" by Joseph Carl HafeleJanuary 1964
6Identification Cards1955-1991
6Passports1971-2006
6Photographsundated