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Twenty-first century experimental atomic clocks that provide non-caesium-based secondary representations of the second are becoming so precise that they are likely to be used as extremely sensitive detectors for other things besides measuring frequency and time.
Sep 23, 2024 · The current gold standard for ultra-precise timekeeping is the cesium atomic clock, where the tiny and fixed energy transitions of the atom’s electrons are used to keep track of time. Now,...
Nov 4, 2024 · Over time, human-made clocks became more stable than the planetary clock we had relied on for thousands of years. Humans also started inventing technologies such as intercontinental air travel and GPS, and those global systems required a highly accurate, universally agreed-upon way of telling time.
May 25, 2016 · In 1949, the National Bureau of Standards made one atomic clock, and others would soon follow. The technology became so good that in 1967, scientists redefined what a second was.
Atomic clocks are designed to measure the precise length of a second, the base unit of modern timekeeping. The International System of Units (SI) defines the second as the time it takes a caesium-133 atom in a precisely defined state to oscillate exactly:
- In an atomic clock, the natural oscillations of atoms act like the pendulum in a grandfather clock. However, atomic clocks are far more precise tha...
- The accuracy of atomic clocks varies and is constantly improving. With an expected error of only 1 second in about 100 million years, the NIST-F1 i...
- Some 400 atomic clocks around the world contribute to the calculation of International Atomic Time (TAI), one of the time standards used to determi...
Nov 28, 2018 · What makes atomic clocks 'tick'? A second is defined by the movement of electrons in a caesium-133 atom, which comprises a nucleus — containing 55 protons and 78 neutrons — surrounded by 55 ...
Mar 28, 2022 · Today, the exquisitely precise timekeeping of atomic clocks is used for measuring time and distance for everything from our Global Positioning System (GPS), online communications across the...
