Atomic Alarm Clocks
Atomic Alarm Clocks - Why They Are the Best Time Keepers in the World
By Denny Collins
Atomic clocks are without a shadow of a doubt the best there is in time keeping standards. The clocks work by receiving data regularly that keeps them up to date by self adjusting itself if need be. The fact that an atomic clock can regulate itself and keep good time is a bonus for anyone, just think no more having to change the time on your clock because its five minutes slow, the clock does it all for you.
The first ever atomic clock was created in 1955 in Teddington and designed by Louis Essen. It was called the "Ceasium I" and although it wasn't the first clock to be made that was regulated by atoms, it was certainly the best time keeper of them all and proved to be far superior to the best quartz and pendulum clocks.
All clocks with mechanical workings, work by counting vibrations of something that has a steady frequency like a pendulum for example. Unfortunately, a pendulums frequency is not perfectly constant. It is affected by gravity, changes in temperature, and even air pressure. This can cause a clock to run too slowly or too quickly.
The frequencies that are measured by atomic clocks are higher than those of a pendulum but they vary a lot less, so an atomic clocks keep time better. Caesium I was accurate enough that it would only lose or gain a single second every three hundred years.
An atomic clock you may have in your house is not strictly speaking atomic, but what it does actually do is receive broadcasted information from a true atomic clock and adjusts itself accordingly if behind or in front of time. This information the clock receives at regular intervals is sent from large transmitters that gather there data from timepieces that are so incredibly accurate they only have a time loss of one second over the span of a million years.
There are 65 laboratories around the globe that transmit these signals that will allow these clocks to be kept up to date with the time to pin point accuracy. The 65 laboratories are needed to cater for all the different regions of the Earth and also the different time zones around our planet.
The international bureau of weights and measures oversees these transmitters and timepieces acting as the official timekeeper for the whole world and they also ensure that your atomic alarm clock keeps on receiving the data that it needs to be the most accurate way of keeping the time ever invented yet.
Denny really loves his home and family and lives life to the full and has been writing about his knowledge and experience. Feel free to see some of his material at Antique Sink and Outdoor Daybed.
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