Are you always worried about the time? Then the news that scientists have come up with a clock that is 100,000 times more precise than the existing international standard should really get you hyped up. The quantum-logic clock which detects the energy state of a single aluminum ion, can keep time to within a second every 3.7 billion years, as opposed to the (current international standard) cesium clock, which loses one second every 100 million years. Considering that GPS devices have to rely on extremely precise atomic clocks, the theory is that if we can come up with better clocks, we’ll be able to tell our position to better precision. 1 second every 3.7 billion years? That certainly doesn’t sound like something we’d worry about, but hey, it’s your call.
Filed in . Read more about Clock.