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The Pound-Rebka experiment measured gravitational redshift using the 14.4-keV gamma ray transition of the isotope iron-57. The Mössbauer effect supplies recoil-free emission and resonant absorption in solids. Robert Vivian Pound and Glen Rebka separated a source and an iron absorber vertically by 74 feet, about 22.6 metres. A helium-filled path reduced absorption by air; detectors behind the absorber counted transmitted gamma rays.^[ref]

Moving the source supplied a calibrated Doppler shift. Interchanging source and absorber reversed the gravitational contribution while exposing fixed source–absorber offsets; monitoring temperature controlled a separate shift from thermal motion. The measured reversal agreed with the prediction to about 10 percent.^[ref]

For an upward ray through height $H$ in a weak gravitational field, $\Delta \nu /\nu =-gH/c^2$. At this height its magnitude is about $2.5\times 10^{-15}$. The leading gravitational redshift also follows from Nordstrom theory of gravitation; this experiment alone does not distinguish that prediction from general relativity.

An experimental physicist who, with Glen Rebka, measured the gravitational redshift of gamma radiation over a laboratory height difference. Narrow nuclear resonance and a controlled Doppler shift made an extremely small gravitational frequency change accessible. The experiment linked a prediction of general relativity to resonant absorption in an apparatus on Earth.^[ref]