Atomic Clock

The atomic clock

Tom showing what holds the atoms

My brain is reeling from all the information we received this morning.  We were invited to the NIST today to see the atomic clock.  This is the clock that the nation uses to get accurate times.  Here is the scientific explanation of how it works.  It keeps time by counting oscillations of a microwave signal generated by ultra-cold cesium atoms as they jump back and forth between different energy states.   We were privileged to be given the tour by my cousins wives brother who built the current clock.  He was delightful and explained it so well although a lot of what he said has already escaped my aged brain.

A prior version

I was also surprised to learn that the NIST won an Emmy for developing closed captioning for television.  Tom showed us an older model of the clock which lay on it's side.  The current one is called a fountain clock because the atoms are shot up and then fall down.  And as you can tell from the pictures it doesn't look at all like a clock as we think of it.

An interesting side note, Boulder has more advanced degrees per capita than any other city in the United States. Our little brains were worn out by the time we left.