4 ms·
Atomic clocks measure atomic state transitions. There is no distance here - the oscillations are in energy states, not position. In fact, the atoms undergoing
by 21 8y ago
Atomic clocks measure atomic state transitions. There is no distance here - the oscillations are in energy states, not position.
In fact, the atoms undergoing these state transitions are cooled as much as possible to prevent any sort of movement:
> The accuracy of an atomic clock depends on two factors. The first factor is temperature of the sample atoms—colder atoms move much more slowly, allowing longer probe times.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_clock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_clock
- nyc111 8y agoI sincerely apologize if I offended anyone's belief in physics. But at least I know that some of the greatest philosophers thought about the nature of Time the way I do. They said Time is not an independent physical entity to be measured. If you call me a crank, as @canhascodez did, for repeating what Aristotle, Leibniz, Kant, Bergson, Henry James and others said then so be it. To clarify some more why I think time is not measurable I wrote a short essay and I posted here for anyone interested: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cKtorWUj5lUeRXJ0iPB9kaLd8Xm6H3H5LiNhHkoSjpI https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cKtorWUj5lUeRXJ0iPB9kaLd...