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New Super-Accurate Atomic Clock Tells Time Like No Other
NBC News ^ | 03 April 2014 | James Eng

Posted on 04/03/2014 6:09:54 PM PDT by zeestephen

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1 posted on 04/03/2014 6:09:54 PM PDT by zeestephen
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To: zeestephen
C

To measure lots of time in nanoseconds, get a longer string

2 posted on 04/03/2014 6:13:26 PM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... History is a process, not an event)
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To: zeestephen

Measuring time is at the base of Science.


3 posted on 04/03/2014 6:13:42 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: zeestephen
“NIST-F2 is now an official source of time for the United States — it has an accuracy that's equivalent to about one second in 300 million years,”

What difference does it make? Mother nature changes the time with each major earthquake. The last few big earthquakes speeded up the rotation of the Earth and knocked seconds off the clock. Which means people still have to adjust clocks - even super-accurate atomic clocks.

4 posted on 04/03/2014 6:17:44 PM PDT by roadcat
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To: zeestephen

Right 3 times a day?


5 posted on 04/03/2014 6:19:26 PM PDT by Scrambler Bob ("The Pen" has a nice ring to it, kind of like "Graybar Hotel")
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To: roadcat
If the rotation of the earth speeds up, a second will still be a second (only difference is in relativity which would be almost immeasurable with such a small increase in rotational sped)

What a clock like this is good for is calibrating scientific equipment, measuring the speed of atomic particles, possibly the expansion of the universe, Doppler effect etc.

6 posted on 04/03/2014 6:21:13 PM PDT by LukeL
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To: zeestephen
From Wikipedia:

"In March 2008, physicists at NIST described a quantum logic clock based on individual ions of beryllium and aluminium. This clock was compared to NIST's mercury ion clock. These were the most accurate clocks that had been constructed, with neither clock gaining nor losing time at a rate that would exceed a second in over a billion years. In February 2010, NIST physicists described a second, enhanced version of the quantum logic clock based on individual ions of magnesium and aluminium. Considered the world's most precise clock, it offers more than twice the precision of the original."

7 posted on 04/03/2014 6:22:17 PM PDT by Steely Tom (How do you feel about robbing Peter's robot?)
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To: zeestephen

Glad I was 0.00000000000000000000000000000001 seconds earlier otherwise I’d have been late fro my hair appointment.


8 posted on 04/03/2014 6:28:49 PM PDT by SkyDancer (I Believe In The Law Until It Intereferes With Justice. And Pay Your Liberty Tax Citizen.)
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To: roadcat
The definition of a second has nothing to do with the rotation of the Earth:

The second is the duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium 133 atom.

9 posted on 04/03/2014 6:42:18 PM PDT by DManA
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To: LukeL

I was trying to be humorous. But I differ with you about a second. A 60th of a minute, and a minute is a 60th of an hour, the hour being a 24th of a day in which the Earth rotates once relative to the Sun’s position. So if the rotation of the Earth speeds up, so does a second. Minutely. Earthquakes, tides and wind all constantly alter the Earth’s rotational speed, but only in microseconds. Over long periods of time, it adds up but only as milliseconds. But a second can alter in duration.


10 posted on 04/03/2014 6:45:42 PM PDT by roadcat
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To: zeestephen

I’ve got a clock on the iPad that is down to around 1/1000 of a second!


11 posted on 04/03/2014 6:46:27 PM PDT by Star Traveler (Remember to keep the Messiah of Israel in the One-World Government that we look forward to coming)
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To: zeestephen

I want one.


12 posted on 04/03/2014 6:47:08 PM PDT by BunnySlippers (I LOVE BULL MARKETS . . .)
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To: zeestephen

At last, a clock that can measure my period of mourning for Teddy Kennedy.


13 posted on 04/03/2014 6:49:29 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: DManA

During my lifetime, the definition of a second had everything to do with the rotation of the Earth, as it did for millenia. Scientists redefined it in 1967. I’m a traditionalist.


14 posted on 04/03/2014 6:49:42 PM PDT by roadcat
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To: roadcat

You must be many moons old.


15 posted on 04/03/2014 6:52:06 PM PDT by DManA
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To: bert

So when the sun expands into a red giant and the earth is engulfed in a firey corona and turned into a cinder, this thing will be more than a minute off?


16 posted on 04/03/2014 6:52:17 PM PDT by Smedley (It's a sad day for American capitalism when a man can't fly a midget on a kite over Central Park)
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To: Steely Tom
These were the most accurate clocks that had been constructed, with neither clock gaining nor losing time at a rate that would exceed a second in over a billion years.

The clock in the article is a civilian NIST clock. Apparently scientific clocks or ones used by the military are much better.

17 posted on 04/03/2014 6:52:48 PM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: zeestephen

My sister owned an atomic clock and the day she died and we came home from the hospital we saw the hands go around and around really fast for 15 minutes and then reset itself at the exact right time.

Anyone know if this is something an atomic clock can do, because otherwise we assumed it was my sister saying goodbye.?


18 posted on 04/03/2014 6:53:44 PM PDT by Beowulf9
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To: Billthedrill

love it!


19 posted on 04/03/2014 6:57:08 PM PDT by lonestar (It takes a village of idiots to elect a village idiot.)
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To: bert

RADM Hopper!


20 posted on 04/03/2014 6:58:35 PM PDT by rabidralph
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