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Record Breaking Clock Accurate to one Second in 15 Billion Years

posted by martyb on Wednesday April 22 2015, @08:47PM   
from the let-the-good-times-roll dept.

AnonTechie writes:

Physicists have said they have fine-tuned an atomic clock to the point where it won’t lose or gain a second in 15bn years – longer than the universe has existed.

The “optical lattice” clock ( http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150421/ncomms7896/full/ncomms7896.html ), which uses strontium atoms, is now three times more accurate than a year ago when it set the previous world record, its developers reported in the journal Nature Communications.

The advance brings science a step closer to replacing the current gold standard in timekeeping: the caesium fountain clock that is used to set Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the official world time.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/apr/22/record-breaking-clock-invented-which-only-loses-a-second-in-15-billion-years

[Also Covered By]: http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/22/8466681/most-accurate-atomic-clock-optical-lattice-strontium

• Re:Meaningless math (Score: 3, Informative) by lentilla on Thursday April 23 2015, @06:54AM

  by lentilla (1770) on Thursday April 23 2015, @06:54AM (#174209)

  what is even the point of calculating such a number?

  Measuring stuff. The history of science is a timeline of progressively better methods and instruments of measuring our physical world.

  Here's some interesting titbits:

  • It took until the mid 18th century to get a marine chronometer [wikipedia.org] sufficiently accurate and reliable to calculate longitude. Many lives have been saved as a direct consequence of knowing where you are.
  • Did you know that you can measure altitude with a pendulum clock? By 1817, physicist Henry Kater [wikipedia.org] had invented a clock that was accurate enough to calculate the local gravity. This led to more accurate geodetic surveys.
  • By 1971 we had accurate enough clocks to be able to confirm time dilation [wikipedia.org] by flying atomic clocks around the world.
  • Now we have a clock so accurate that "what time is it?" is an easily measured local phenomena.

  Measuring our world is a way of defining our place in the universe. Practical applications aside, the fact that we are able to measure things - especially things we can't see - fills me with wonder and a genuine sense of pride in the human race.

  Parent

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