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The Interesting Thing About Time by Kid. on 2004-02-23 15:12:04
That I learned today is that the most accurate way of keeping time is with Caesium. You know, the element. Its the one above Francium in the periodic table. It oscillates 9,000,000,000 as second, apparently - not exactly, obviously - and is so regular that it is the force guiding all the 'atomic clocks'...the ones that lose about 1 second every 100,000 years. Why do I know this? I don't know.
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| Re: The Interesting Thing About Time by tommie on 2004-02-24 07:00:07 | Reply to this | |||||||||
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Now that you know,
1: http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/leapsec.html here is some information which will help confuse the issue: since the revolution of the earth around the sun (the original basis for defining the length of a second) changes, time on the clock must be ajusted.
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| Re: The Interesting Thing About Time by Alices Restaurant on 2004-03-09 18:06:37 | Reply to this | |||||
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What I find interesting is the discussions about the age of the universe. But I always want to then say, from who's "time reference" are we measuring the age of the universe? Most of the inferred ages are measured from our own timeframe. But then, all of us are made up of little specks, all coalesced from a first-generation star's supernova remnants. And since they were all thrown out by that star at relativistic speeds, (similar to the original Big Bang's "Big Vomit"), one has to wonder if everyone's actually compensated for the time dialation that occurs when you're travelling so fast. Time slows down, almost to a standstill in fact if YOU are part of what's moving away so fast. So you really have to wonder whether or not all these scientists have clued into the fact that their age estimates for the universe are so wildly wrong, since we've twice been part of a system that's travelling at relativistic speeds. To an outside observer the universe could be only a couple of billion years old perhaps. So back to the cesium issue... sure, it oscillates 9x10^9 times per second but the concept of an Earth second hasn't always been that "fixed".
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| Re: The Interesting Thing About Time by Wash! on 2004-03-12 04:34:18 | Reply to this | |||||
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Whil living in France last year, i got into the daily routine of watching a quiz show at 12:15 -1pm, followed by the news. It was a great quiz show, and the news helped me keep up to date with the goings on in my host country, as well as improving my French, and broadening my vocab.... I digress... Each Friday, i feel like a travel back in time! I win an hour, every single Friday. After my 10-11 seminar, i go upstairs in the lnaguage building, and watch French TV for an hour and a half. When i then go back to the computer room to check my mail, i look at the clock, and what SHOULD be 1.30 - the time the news ends - turns out to be actually 12.30!! I've no idea why i've share this with you. It sounded good in my mind, but actually isn't all that great a story. I may in fact go back in time again, and not write it.
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