Super clocks that make use of profound technology to be more accurate to time

<![CDATA[The accuracy of time required by scientists is in a billionth of a second and for decades, they have worked to develop a technology that could measure time so accurately. The research and usage of atomic watches dates back to 1955. Ever since the scientists from around the globe, are trying to built more accurate time keeping devices.

The Shortt-Synchronome Mechanical Clock

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The invention of this clock once regarded as most accurate dates back to 1921. The accuracy of this one was one-second in 12 years, although nowhere close to the atomic clocks but was quite relied upon in the olden days. This clock had a pendulum in a vacuum tank connected to electrical wires. This clock helped the scientists to know that the rotation of the Earth was in consistent.

The NIST F2

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After a decade of research, The National Institute of Standards and technology (NIST) unveiled the NIST F2 in 2014. The accuracy of this Atomic clock is one-second in 300 million years as per the Colorado based NIST. This is a cesium based atomic fountain clock, where the frequency of the cesium atoms is used to measure a second using microwave radiations.

The Aluminum Quantum Logic Clock

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In this atomic clock, instead of cesium, an aluminum atom along with a beryllium atom is used to measure a second. The accuracy of this clock is said to be one-second in 3.7 million years. This atomic clock was built by the NIST in 2010. Laser is used to chill down the aluminum and beryllium atom to absolute zero temperature and another laser is used to makes changes in these atoms.

The NIST clock

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This is the result of collaboration between Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The precision of this clock is one-second in 5 billion years. The clock uses strontium in lieu of cesium atoms.

Cryogenic optical lattice clock

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Last but not the least, in fact the most accurate clock of all time with an accuracy of one-second in 16 Billion years. The clock has been developed in Japan under the leadership of Professor Hidetoshi Katori of the University of Tokyo. In this optical lattice clock strontium atoms are trapped by laser and cooled to -180°C.

Since the introduction of the atomic cesium clock in 1955, there have been many breakthroughs in the field of technology including the global positioning system. The Optical lattice clock technology will help the scientists to study a variety of phenomenon with precision, especially the geological ones like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
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