DailyDirt: Calibration Time, Come On!
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Not all clocks are created equal. Some clocks lose a few seconds every month. Others are connected to cell phone towers and are constantly updating their time displays. We've come a long way from the VCRs that blink 12:00. Here are just a few articles on how we're keeping track of every minute.- Atomic clocks will be sooo "last second" when nuclear clocks start ticking. Instead of using excited electrons from a specified element to measure the passage of time, scientists will zap the nuclei of thorium atoms to create a clock that claims to drift by about 1 second in 200 billion years. [url]
- NIST has an interesting website on the history of time keeping. NIST also broadcasts shortwave signals and offers a phone-based service to deliver the current time within an accuracy of a few milliseconds. [url]
- [Warning: pdf link] In January 2012, there could be a redefined version of Coordinated Universal Time that eliminates any requirement to keep our time systems synchronized to the Earth's rotation -- and ditching the "leap second" among other artifacts. Computer: "Captain's log, stardate 41153.7. Our destination is planet..." [url]
- To discover more interesting science-related stuff, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]
Filed Under: clocks, leap seconds, nuclear clock, stardate, time
Companies: nist
