New Atomic Clock Could Redefine the Second
bmahersciwriter writes "The new type of clock, called an optical lattice clock could replace the cesium fountain clocks used as the standard for time keeping. Indeed, it could redefine the second. The cesium fountain is predicted to keep time within one second over 100 million years. While other atomic clocks are better than that, researchers suspect the optical lattice is better still and could one day replace the standard."
... as 1/65536 of a day. Then I can do time calculations on my 6502.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
a second ago...
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
While other atomic clocks are better than that, researchers suspect the optical lattice is better still and could one day replace the standard.
So A is better than B, but B is still better than A. Makes sense.
Better known as 318230.
My watch is made in china.
Am i doing it right?
CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
but leap microseconds?
Actually, I think that might be a good idea. There's likely to be money in rewriting time stacks to cope with 1000001 microsecond seconds.
It's still relative.
One Mississippi, two Mississippi...
Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.
Yeah, no more sloppy seconds!
Just when you start to think you know everything you read something and fail to grasp it's significance and feel dumb or naive all over again.
Well, then you just hope it helps make a warp core.
-Ultimate Stickman Game Developer Infinite World Puzzler
Look, not for nothing, but this summary really is exceptionally poorly written. "...while other atomic clocks are better than that, researchers suspect the optical lattice is better still..."? Is this the 10th grade? "Better than that" is how we summarize a new type of clock? Why don't we just throw style out the window and write that it's very, very, very, very, very, very, very good? Additionally, can we possibly have even a quick sentence to explain of why the optical lattice is "better still"?. I mean, I can obviously read the article, but frankly now I don't want to.
Ah, time. Man's cruelest construct.
...
All I can say is.. it's about time!
The new (less than a decade old) optical latice clocks (OLC's) in which 10,000 atoms of strontium-87 are trapped in (what else) an optical lattice have been shown to be better (within 1.5x10^-16) than the current world standard cesium fountain clocks (within 3x10^-16), but haven't yet beat the best clocks, which are measuring emissions from single ions trapped in an electro-magnetic field (within 1x10^-17). But researchers are hopeful that OLC's will eventually emerge as the new standard because 10,000 atoms beat 1 atom for measurement statistics and because the other two technologies measure frequencies in the microwave spectrum, while the optical lattice clock is measuring in the visible spectrum. Statistics and higher frequencies should eventually win out as the technology matures.
Between this and the WWVB anniversary it's been a good run the last few days for time nuts.
"A man with one clock knows what time it is. A man with two clocks is never sure. But I would add further: A man with three clocks is more sure than a man with two clocks."
Quoted from one of the quintisential time nuts at
http://www.leapsecond.com/
It's all relative.
.. now that's what I call sloppy seconds.
It will never be as good as my sand clock. It's interesting to waste lots of time watching it.
So what happens to the platinum second they keep in the French vault?
Does anybody really care?
- Mike
What about the 4 dimensional "time crystal" that not only has perfectly repeating latices structure in the 3 dimensions, but also in the 4th time dimension. If it truly has perfect repetition in the 4th dimension, shouldn't that be the "perfect" time piece?
Let's just implement a leap second every 184643824387596223646302 seconds.... unless the second is divisible with 4986,1324 but not when it is divisible with pi.
I'm bad at adding complexity to things, so I think we need to have some American scientists decide it for all of us :)
Beyond the first sentence, everything said is completely wrong...