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.

[NorthMountain]

GPS is one reason time measurements are critical.

GPS also illustrates that the time-dilation effects described in "general" relativity theory actually occur.

[Sgt_Schultze]

Surely in five billion years, the Earth’s rotation will slow or the orbit will alter. If the clock doesn’t lose a second, once the length of the day decays, the clock will be increasingly wrong.

[camle]

i was quoting an old song

[dfwgator]

Why don’t we have it Saturday, in the park.

[Hot Tabasco]

Does it come with a money back guarantee?

[newfreep]

Yes, I was also quoting a Chicago song...

[newfreep]

OK - let’s meet at 25 or 6 to 4

...that was too easy. :-)

[dfwgator]

“I was hoping for a Longines.”

[dfwgator]

Just you and me, right?

[zeugma]

I saw this yesterday on slashdot. They've pretty much reached and gone past the limit of accuracy for timekeeping. This new clock is so accurate, that having one on the floor, and one on a table, the relativistic gravitational effects would be observed in the differences between them. Because of the extreme accuracy, they effectively can't be synchronized. So, as a timekeeping device, they aren't really useful. However, there are some possibilities for other uses. You could use clocks like these to map out gravitational differences between different places. Perhaps using it to detect the thickness of the mantle in particular locations.

Time itself is a pretty fascinating topic as far as I'm concerned. Its nature is not understood at all, or even if it is a 'real' thing, and not just wholly an invention of man.

[zeugma]

Cool clock. Very steampunkish. Wouldn't mind having one, but I'm sure it would be rediculously expensive for what it is.

[Jack Hammer]

Sorry, Boss, I’m a trillionth of a second late - please don’t fire me, okay?

[zeugma]

does anybody really know what time it is?

According to the folks who built this clock, the answer is "no".

does anybody really care?

Probably not.

[zeugma]

Leap Seconds are well understood, and documented. The Wikipedia entry for timekeeping is pretty interesting. There are apparently several "standards" for using leap seconds (or not). GPS does not count leap seconds. The USNO does on their reference clocks. Unfortunately, leap seconds are not implemented in a standardized way across all timekeeping applications. Computer time is even more of a mess. "Epoch" dates vary, and most programs that calculate time do not understand or take into account leap seconds, which actually vary in directions. Sometimes we get an extra second, sometimes they take one away.

An accurate date calculation would have to have a table of leap seconds, their direction and when they were implemented in order to be able to calculate the precise time based on elapsed time from an Epoch date. Like I said, it's a mess.

[Professional Engineer]

Does it have Nixie tubes?

That would be a hoot!

[newfreep]

Sheeesh, that must be the 67th or 68th question from you!

[newfreep]

Amazing how the lyrics to Dialogue is so relevant today.

Terry= Constitutional Conservative
Peter= Brainless leftwing kook

Terry: Are you optimistic ‘bout the way that things are going?
Pete: No, I never ever think of it at all.
Terry: Don’t you ever worry when you see what’s going down?
Pete: Well, I try to mind my business, that is, no business at all.

Terry: When it’s time to function as a feeling human being, will your Bachelor
of Arts help you get by?
Pete: I hope to study further, a few more years or so. I also hope to keep a steady high.

Terry: Will you try to change things, use the power that you have, the power of a million new ideas?
Pete: What is this power you speak of and the need for things to change? I always thought that ev’rything was fine, ev’rything is fine.

Terry: Don’t you feel repression just closing in around?
Pete: No, the campus here is very very free.
Terry: Does it make you angry the way war is dragging on?
Pete: Well I hope the President knows what he’s into, I don’t know. Oooh I just don’t know.

Terry: Don’t you see starvation in the city where you live, all the needless hunger, all the needless pain?
Pete: I haven’t been there lately, the country is so fine,
but my neighbors don’t seem hungry ‘cause they haven’t got the time, Haven’t got the time.

Terry: Thank you for the talk, you know you really eased my mind, I was troubled by the shapes of things to come.
Pete: Well, if you had my outlook, your feelings would be numb, You’d always think that ev’rything was fine. Ev’ry thing is fine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gje_0OMj4h4

[dfwgator]

V was definitely their best album.

[rawcatslyentist]

It's not gravity that causes the difference. It's relative speed traveled.

The faster object uses more space (relative distance traveled), but less time.

Gravity does however bend it also. It's gonna be a lot less influence than what they are looking for though.

[newfreep]

I agree - but...

“Beginnings” is my favorite Chicago song - only for a personal connection to “the girl next door” who I married and later lost her to breast cancer at 28.