Tl;Dr They are trying to make a better atomic clock that could provide a more precise definition of a second then we currently have.
Scientists are hoping to redefine the second – here's why
Submitted 7 months ago by small44@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://theconversation.com/scientists-are-hoping-to-redefine-the-second-heres-why-157645
Comments
Fafner@yiffit.net 7 months ago
MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 7 months ago
[deleted]Fafner@yiffit.net 7 months ago
The more precisely you can count time, the more precisely and finely you can measure other things. This not only applies to fast phenomenon. It can also be used for syncing up multiple measurements made in different places; like that image of a black hole we got a couple of years ago.
It’s another step in getting a finer resolution on the universe.
prole@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
Precision? The answer was literally in the comment you replied to.
Stoneykins@mander.xyz 7 months ago
Detect smaller gravity waves, possibly, hopefully.
Sylvartas@lemmy.world 7 months ago
To… get a more precise measurement of a second ? It’s already pretty precise but not 100% accurate so why not ?
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de 7 months ago
Can’t wait for decimal time with 100,000 seconds/day /s
EnglishMobster@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Decimal time exists, thanks to the French Revolution.
There are 100 decimal seconds in a decimal minute, 100 minutes in a decimal hour, and 10 hours in a decimal day. Each second is slightly shorter than a SI second.
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de 7 months ago
I know and nobody uses it.
cynar@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Unfortunately, there is no easy way to decimalise time for human use. If you make it useful for humans, it doesn’t sync well to a day. If you make it sync to a day, the resulting units are awkward for the human mind.
Amusingly, for computers, time is decimalised! UTC is a fully metric time. It’s just simpler to constantly remap to and from UTC to a user’s time, than to train the user to use UTC.
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de 6 months ago
For computers, Unix time is in binary. But yes.
TheUnicornOfPerfidy@feddit.uk 7 months ago
I actually quite like this idea. Or we could start using number base 12 instead of 10 everywhere else.
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de 7 months ago
pastermil@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
Fuck this…
Omniraptor@lemm.ee 7 months ago
It’ll likely happen once we move to living mostly in space (if we survive that long ofc)
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de 7 months ago
With a full switch to metric, hopefully. We’ve lost a Mars probe to unit confusion already.
FatTony@lemmy.world 7 months ago
At first I was like: The second what?
doctorn@r.nf 7 months ago
This. Same… 😅
MaggiWuerze@feddit.de 6 months ago
That’s the problem when your language doesn’t have capitalization for nouns
teft@startrek.website 7 months ago
The second division of the hour.
BeatTakeshi@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Hey! Wait a sec
waz@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Could you be more specific?
Andreas@feddit.dk 7 months ago
Is this like when they made the kilogram some function of the speed of light instead of the weight of a metal ball in a French museum?
aubertlone@lemmy.world 7 months ago
They linked the kilogram to the gravitational force.
It’s part of an effort to clarify how we define things. We’re now trying to link our recorded units to the basic forces they are related to. So now, the kilogram is defined by the gravitational force, the meter by how fast light travels, etc etc
PflaumeKordel@feddit.de 7 months ago
The kilogram is defined as the mass equivalent of a photon of a specific energy via the Planck constant h thus linking the speed of light and the frequency of the hyperfine level of caesium-133. The relative uncertainty of the measured value of the gravitational constant G is 10^-5 which would lead to a definition of the kilogram that has a worse relative uncertainty than using the former definition defined via an international prototype. The Wikipedka article is more detailed than this short summary.
BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 7 months ago
I misread that as “meat ball”, and now I’m kind of disappointed that we don’t use meatballs as a standard unit. “I’m 6 meatball subs and 3 balls high”, “The yacht is about 18 giant party subs long”, etc.
bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 7 months ago
Unfortunately this is a bit like the imperial system where you get multiple units of measurement. There is the standard foot-long, which is twelve inches, and there is the $5 foot-long™, which is only 11 inches
Kethal@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Not exactly. The kilogram was redefined in a fundamentally different way, moving from an artifact, which will change with time, to a fundamental property of nature, that as far as anyone knows, will be the same at all times. The second was already defined in such a way. Any such definition still requires some sort of measurement though to get something usable. Different ways of measuring the same type of definition can be more precise, and in this redefinition they think they’ve found a more precise method that works in the same fundamental manner. Both measure the oscillation rate of atoms, but the proposed element is thought tomgove better precision.
radix@lemm.ee 7 months ago
Would this affect our lives on Earth?
snooggums@kbin.social 7 months ago
Most likely indirectly, like how GPS has to account for satellites not matching the passage of time on earth due to relatively.
kogs@lemmy.world 7 months ago
You can now be more accurately late for work. Or your coffee is more accurately taking a long time to come out.
scratchee@feddit.uk 7 months ago
If they can predict earthquakes and eruptions more accurately. As suggested in the article, then yes for all the people who don’t die.
postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Relativistically.
lightnsfw@reddthat.com 7 months ago
I better not have to buy a new watch because of this.
Jake_Farm@sopuli.xyz 6 months ago
Wont that fuck up the other measures that use the second as a basis?
Kissaki@feddit.de 7 months ago
The most relevant paragraph: