Korea develops atomic clock which is out by one second once every 300,000 years

Korea develops atomic clock which is out by one second once every 300,000 years

The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science have developed an atomic clock that corrects any time errors on its own. The institute had help from overseas for the corrections as it did not know by how much an atomic clock errs. The new clock, dubbed KRISS-1, can measure and correct the errors for itself. The cesium atomic clock defines one second as the duration of 9,192,631,770 resonance frequency cycles of the cesium atom. But discrepancies occur due to the earth's magnetic field, temperature and gravity.

Minutely accurate standard time is the basis for science, Internet commerce and the global positioning system (GPS). The clock is one of only around a dozen in the world which is out by one second once every 300,000 years.

July 31, 2008 - 4:56 AM | Posted in - Other Stuff |