The clock that won't lose a second in five BILLION years - and is so sensitive it shows how gravity

UK Daily Mail ^ | November 4, 2014 | Mark Prigg

[C19fan]

A new record-breaking atomic clock is so precise it neither loses nor gains a second in five billion years - longer than the age of the Earth. The 'strontium lattice clock' is 50% more accurate than the previous record holder, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) quantum logic clock. Researchers say the clock is so accurate, it can even reveal the effect gravity has on time.

[envisio]

Does it have a snooze button?

[coloradan]

No, but it might reveal them.

[G Larry]

That’ll be my next watch which will be great for assessing those predictions for 2064...when I’m 111.

[Blue Jays]

It is entertaining to set both mechanical watches (which I love) as well as electronic watches against those super atomic clocks.

[coloradan]

Ground stations are routinely in contact with such satellites through microwave links.

[coloradan]

Hardly. It only means that, if you ask the clock if it could give you a second, it will say no.

[camle]

does anybody really know what time it is?
does anybody really care?

[smokingfrog]

I don’t trust anything that runs on batteries.

[fruser1]

“If you take a clock off the floor, and hang it on the wall, Ye says, ‘the time will speed up by about one part in 1016.”

Might be a typo there. They’re talking the difference of a millisecond by being several feet higher.

That’d mean I could extend an 80 year lifetime by about 28 days if, instead of walking upright, I crawled.

[C19fan]

I bet that is meant to be 10 to the power 16 or 10 followed by 15 zeroes.

[sphinx]

How long before this is rolled out for college hoops, and it starts taking 30 minutes to play the last 15 seconds?

[bgill]

How soon until the strontium lattice v.2 comes out with more bells and whistles making this one soooo last year?

[null and void]

One part in 10¹⁶

[Second Amendment First]

GPS is one reason time measurements are critical.

I have actually been right outside the room where this is kept, but the light was off inside so I couldn’t see it on the camera. They have all the old ones on display there too.

[mikrofon]

John Cameron Swayze would be pleased…

[MUDDOG]

Better targeting for our cruise missiles.

[KarlInOhio]

Let’s see how well it keeps on ticking after being strapped to a motor boat propeller (or even just licked).

[newfreep]

Geno Smith needs this clock...

[rjsimmon]

This one's better:

[newfreep]

Care to have a Dialog - either Part 1 or 2?