The good can go far. But the bad go too far - Egan Orion
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Boffins create world's most accurate clock
GOVERNMENT WORKERS at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have built an enhanced version of an experimental atomic clock that they claim is twice as accurate as their old ones.
The clock is based on a single aluminium atom while the older ones used a mercury atom. It would take the new clock about 3.7 billion years to lose a second.
According to Physical Review Letters, which we subscribe to for its exciting Spot the Proton competition, the new clock borrows the logical processing used for atoms storing data in experimental quantum computing.
We think this involves a cat that may or may not be there swatting at an atom which could be in two different places at once depending on whether the cat saw it or not.
The clock proves that aluminum is now a better timekeeper than mercury and that optical clocks are better than the NIST-F1 cesium fountain clock, the US civilian time standard, which currently keeps time to within one second in about 100 million years.
Such clocks apparently have a use. They apparently can record measurements of possible changes in the fundamental constants of nature, such as how bad Italian TV constantly remains. µ
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Thanks for the entertainment Ed.
http://tf.nist.gov/
NIST Demonstrates Miniature Atomic Clock
NIST researchers have demonstrated a minuscule atomic clock with inner workings about the size of a grain of rice and potential applications in atomically precise timekeeping in portable, battery-powered devices for secure wireless communications, more precise navigation, and other applications. The "physics package" of the clock, believed to be the smallest in the world, is about 1.5 millimeters on a side and about 4 millimeters tall, consumes less than 75 thousandths of a watt, and has a stability of about one part in 10 billion, equivalent to a clock that would neither gain nor lose more than a second in 300 years.
They carnt even shpell aluminium.
Dont waste time on elementary talk.
I could hardly find time for this drivel because I'm a member of an amateur dramatic club who meets on the same day as this very spot, but some days maybe not.
Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late, for a very important kindergarten of the ego! Move along, kitties.
Could they be talking about fusion power?
100 points to first person who can figure out what the hell lard is talking about.
and it's good 'nuff fer me.
Oh, if only "the power of lard" had the police state at his command to direct our misguided society! We could all be slaving away at developing "over-unity power sources".
@the power of lard
You have no idea of the importance of Automic clocks. The potential applications of super accurate clocks are huge. An atomic clock that is twice as accurate as the last is a very big deal.
Are you a troll lard or really that ignorant?
@the power of lard
Atomic clocks are the basis of GPS. Useless you say?
what pointless waste of resources!
those 'boffins' could be employed to do something that actually benfits mankind like finding cures for diseases of developing over-unity power sources.
theyre just idiots soaking up cash for mucking around.
shame on you!!
I don't think so. Atomic clock is not a portable gadget.