Keeping Time with a Mercury Atom 153
Roland Piquepaille writes "The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has announced that a new experimental atomic clock based on a single mercury atom is now at least five times more precise than NIST-F1, the U.S. standard clock. This mercury atomic clock 'would neither gain nor lose a second in about 400 million years' while it would take 'only' 70 million years to NIST-F1, based on a 'fountain' of cesium atoms, to gain or lose a second. But even if this new kind of optical atomic clock is more accurate than cesium microwave clocks, it will take a while before such a design can be accepted as an international standard. A ZDNet summary contains pictures and more details about the world's most precise clock."
unfortunately (Score:5, Funny)
Re:400 million years (Score:4, Funny)
Great news for D-Link (Score:5, Funny)
Only problem is... (Score:5, Funny)
The only problem arises... (Score:5, Funny)
The more precisely
the MOMENTUM is determined,
the less precisely
the POSITION is known
So this clock is unfortunately missing. And when it is found, it is not so accurate anymore.
I'm registering domain names now (Score:2, Funny)
Just in case the religious right get a further hold on our country in the future, I've also registered jesuswillreturn400002k.com and (hedging my bets) spaghettimonsterwillreturn400002k.com
but we all know that by that time, humanity will simply be slaves to the powerfully accurate mercury clock.
So, I for one welcome our new mercury atom overlords, and remind them that mercyatomoverlords.com can be had for the steal of 6.7 billion dollars, should cover the cost of registering the domain up to that point.
but will it (Score:2, Funny)
wristwatch (Score:4, Funny)
Re:unfortunately (Score:5, Funny)
Re:400 million years (Score:4, Funny)
This man [wikipedia.org] begs to differ.
Re:unfortunately (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Only problem is... (Score:3, Funny)
Yes, please. I love free lectures!
Re:How much accuracy do you need? (Score:3, Funny)
So... at what point do you say that a clock is accurate enough?
When you can snipe anybody at will on eBay. [slashdot.org]