Optical strontium clocks could redefine the second

http://phys.org/news/2013-01-optical-strontium-clock-accurate.html

by ghswa • 13 years ago

11 7 13 years ago

noja• 13 years ago

Can anyone comment on the advantages that this extra precision will bring?

gerhardi• 13 years ago

If the new second is found to be longer than the old second, then for example long distance travels won't take as many seconds than before. Oh wait... sorry.

untrothy2• 13 years ago

I'm not an expert so take what I say with a grain of salt, but for example 1 meter is defined to be:

"Length of the path travelled by light in a vacuum in 1⁄299,792,458 of a second (17th CGPM)" [1]

So if you manage to measure the second with better accuracy you also manage to measure distances with less uncertainty.

For our everyday lives it will probably make no difference if the uncertainty of the meter changes from 10^-10 to 10^-11, but physicists could probably use the improvement to do something interesting.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metre

ancarda• 13 years ago

Also not an expert but I imagine if that were the case, it would have applications in measuring distance between galaxies and other areas of enormous distance.

Optical strontium clocks could redefine the second

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