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Yoctonewton Detector Smashes Force Sensing Record
KentuckyFC writes "A team of physicists has measured the smallest force ever recorded, at 174 yoctonewtons (yocto=10^-24), beating the previous best by three orders of magnitude. Their measurement device consists of a few dozen beryllium ions trapped in magnetic and electric fields using a device called a Penning trap. These ions vibrate at between a few mega and kilohertz, frequencies that can be accurately measured by bouncing laser light off the ions and measuring any Doppler shift they cause. Being charged, the ions are highly susceptible to the tiny forces associated with stray magnetic and electric fields, which change the frequency at which the ions vibrate. Hence the super-sensitive measurements. They team says that straightforward modifications should allow them to measure single yoctonewtons in the near future. This sudden leap in sensitivity could cause a problem for the system of SI prefixes, which don't yet come any smaller than yocto."
This is no big deal.
Who hasn't hearsd of Scientific Notation?
I haven't hearsd of it.
Help fight poverty: Punch a poor person.
I, hereby, propose the diminewtons.
They should've started from the tiniest entity, like we CSs did with the bits.
They won't hear us complain of not having a name for portions of a yotabit.
Who hasn't hearsd of Scientific Notation?
I haven't hearsd of it.
Don't worry, you have a large selection of hearsding aids to choose from.
As long as you have good sighst...
They may or may not have. It's impossible to tell.
Simple. Call them deciyoctos, centiyoctos, miliyoctos, microyoctos, etc. The problem will be solved forever. It's not like we will find anything smaller.
On Slashdot you never can be sure if you are reading a joke from a genius or a line from an idiot.
On Slashdot you never can be sure if you are reading a joke from a genius or a line from an idiot.
It's Slashdot, it's ALWAYS the latter.
LOL. We could have yoctoyoctos or even yoctoyoctoyoctos.
America, Home of the Brave.
...And yet still not sensitive enough to measure how fast I jumped when my niece recently asked me if I wanted a Miley Cyrus ticket too.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
...to detect the attractive force a Linux nerd radiates out to women.
Who hasn't hearsd of Scientific Notation?
I haven't hearsd of it.
Don't worry, you have a large selection of hearsding aids to choose from.
As long as you have good sighst...
And if you don't have good sighst, I hearsd that there's a way to fix that as long as you can tatse well.
into a bunch of humorous suggestions for the name of units smaller than yocto
allow me to start the noble proceedings:
mosquito-newtons
eensyteensy-newtowns
feelingsofinadequacy-newtons
napoleoncomplex-newtowns
wheredididropit-newtons
2009GNP-newtons
loco-newtons
gonzo-newtons
artdeco-newtons
your turn
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
This sudden leap in sensitivity could cause a problem for the system of SI prefixes which don't yet come any smaller than yocto.
I say that the SI authority open the floor for commercial advertisers to sponsor smaller prefixes.
Future announcements might include: "Physicists break force measurement record with device sensitive to 10 Applenewtons."
Dewey, you fool! Your decimal system has played right into my hands!
the emoticonewton
or perhaps the :)newton, 8-(newton, :-Pnewton, ;\newton, etc
this is a great idea you've had! pat yourself on the back
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Just enough to hold the mandatory 30 second anti-piracy advertisement, followed by the RIAA approved 5 second clip of the song, followed by a 30 second commercial outro.
All DRM protected and only usable with "trusted" hardware (digitally encrypted at receiver and then decrypted by the new mandatory $500 digital speaker, or $200 earbuds) to keep those evil pirates from infringing.
Wait 'til the teachers get told to start teaching this gibi crap at school. Suddenly all the recent graduates are talking exbi this and zebi that and you're still talking exa and zetta, and all of a sudden you're looking like a dibinosaur.
If medicine were ever perfected, we'd all be the same.
+1x10^0 insightful :)
Still can't detect individual midi-chlorians, can it?
As long as they can measure it in Libraries of Congresses, I'm okay with it.
At least it will be less of a mess than Linux audio.
I think a yLoC is a character in a Shakespere play.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
The obvious next steps below Zepto would be Grouchto, Harpto, and Chicto. If they'd followed the logical course they'd be set for another two orders of magnitude, instead of having to come up with a new name in the middle of a recession. Do they think SI prefixes grow on trees or something?