Teddington scientists have helped the BBC TV demonstrate Einstein's theories of relativity.

In Bang Goes the Theory, which is due to go out on BBC1 tomorrow night at 7.30pm, a team of scientists flew one of the atomic clocks held at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Teddington around the world to test it against another as part of a rare experiment to prove Einstein's theories of relativity.

The test was a repeat of the Hafele-Keating experiment and revealed the time dilation effects predicted by Einstein's theories of Relativity.

To reveal the effects two highly accurate atomic clocks ticking down nanoseconds, one billionth of a second, in complete unison are needed.

One is taken on a trip around the world, whilst the other one stays at NPL and when they are reunited, according to Einstein's theories, they should no longer be in sync.

Setnam Shemar, one of NPL's time scientists, said: "This is a rare and exciting experiment - a full round-the-world trip like this hadn't been attempted since 1971, so NPL was absolutely delighted to be a part of it.”

The NPL is the home of the UK's atomic time scale and the world's first working atomic clock was developed at the Teddington laboratory, based on the outskirts of Bushy Park, by Louis Essen in 1955.