3 ms·
I recall reading that our ability to measure time accurately exceeds that of any other quantity. According to the NIST, the newest Optical Lattice clocks would
by algorithmsRcool 1y ago
I recall reading that our ability to measure time accurately exceeds that of any other quantity. According to the NIST, the newest Optical Lattice clocks would drift by less than 1 second if they were started 13 billion years ago at the big bang. What else can we measure down past 1 part per 10e18?
- analog31 1y agoCuriously, there's also a contender for the worst, which I think at present is the gravitational constant.
- teraflop 1y agoYup. And an interesting detail is that we know the product G·M_e (where G is the gravitational constant, and M_e is the mass of the earth) to much higher precision than we know either of its factors. And the same goes for the sun and most of the other planets. This is because the motion of celestial bodies and spacecraft is dominated by gravitational forces which depend only on G·M, and that motion can be measured extremely accurately with e.g. Doppler radar.
- ipdashc 1y ago> our ability to measure time accurately exceeds that of any other quantity TIL. I guess maybe that explains why the second is used as the base of the SI (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_revision_of_the_SI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_revision_of_the_SI) post-2019, if my understanding of it is correct?
- AlotOfReading 1y agoThat's around the same sensitivity that LIGO operates at.