“It’s the reason atomic clocks can reach a performance level beyond mechanical clocks.” “The fact that the energy difference between these orbits is such a precise and stable value is really the key ingredient for atomic clocks,” Eric Burt, an atomic clock physicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, says in a 2019 blog post on NASA’s website. Because atoms of an individual element respond only to a specific and unique frequency (the number of waves that pass by a point in space in a given amount of time), scientists could measure this frequency to obtain a standard and accurate measurement of time. In this early form of the atomic clock, the jolt of energy from the radiation caused electrons in the atoms to jump back and forth between energy levels, or orbits, around the atom’s nucleus. A Brief Subatomic HistoryĪfter the advent of atomic physics, scientists developed a way to pass cesium atoms through radio waves, and then microwaves, a form of high-frequency electromagnetic radiation. Here’s how atomic clocks work, and why we can’t imagine a world (or future discoveries about our universe) without them. But scientists have developed even more advanced atomic clocks that could reveal more about the mysterious parts of the universe-like dark matter-than we have ever seen. Today, the exquisitely precise timekeeping of atomic clocks is used for measuring time and distance for everything from our Global Positioning System ( GPS), online communications across the world, fractions of a second in trading stocks, and timed races in the Olympics. As a clock pendulum swings back and forth, and a tuning-fork-shaped piece of quartz oscillates with an electric current in a watch, you count the periodic swings of electrons in an atomic clock as they jump between energy levels. Come learn with us.Īt a minuscule scale, an atomic clock employs the same fundamental processes as a grandfather clock or a wristwatch: it offers a periodic phenomenon that you can count. ⚛️ You love learning about the coolest scientific advances. These clocks aren’t coming to your house anytime soon, though: they can be the size of an armoire cabinet and consist of an interwoven mass of stainless steel, lasers, wires, and cables, all attached to a vacuum chamber that holds the microscopic stars of the show.ĭuring World War II, scientists first cracked the secrets of the atom, birthing the study of quantum physics and the possibilities of using the tiniest building blocks of matter for practical applications, including the atomic clock. They almost sound like something out of science fiction, or an experiment confined to some elite physics lab, but in reality, they’ve been around since the 1950s in one form or another.
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