[time-nuts] Are there limits to the accuracy of clocks?

Ulrich Bangert df6jb at ulrich-bangert.de
Wed Mar 29 04:36:04 EST 2006


Hal,

i guess a physicist's answer to your question would be something like
that:

Question:
What is Planck length? What is Planck time?

Answer:
The Planck length is the scale at which classical ideas about gravity
and space-time cease to be valid, and quantum effects dominate. This is
the ‘quantum of length’, the smallest measurement of length with any
meaning. 

And roughly equal to 1.6 x 10-35 m or about 10-20 times the size of a
proton. 

The Planck time is the time it would take a photon travelling at the
speed of light to across a distance equal to the Planck length. This is
the ‘quantum of time’, the smallest measurement of time that has any
meaning, and is equal to 10-43 seconds. No smaller division of time has
any meaning. With in the framework of the laws of physics as we
understand them today, we can say only that the universe came into
existence when it already had an age of 10-43 seconds.

Regards
Ulrich

> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com 
> [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com] Im Auftrag von Hal Murray
> Gesendet: Mittwoch, 29. März 2006 10:21
> An: time-nuts at febo.com
> Betreff: [time-nuts] Are there limits to the accuracy of clocks?
> 
> 
> Daniel Kleppner's "Time Too Good To Be True" article in 
> Physics Today said that atomic clocks have been getting 
> better by a factor of 10 every decade for the past 50 years.
>     http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-59/iss-3/p10.html
>     
> http://www.timing-consultants.com/images/App%20notes/vol59no3p
10_11.pdf
Thanks to Rob Kimberley for telling me/us about that article.  It's a
really neat article if anybody hasn't read it yet.

Are there any known/predicted bumps in the road?  Is there some physical
limit?  What happens after atomic clocks?  ... 

Does anybody have a list of all the "limits" for silicon chips or
magnetic recording that have come and gone?

Does Heisenberg get involved?  If so, how far are we from being able to
notice it?  How would a timekeeper state the basic idea?  I'm fishing
for something like "If you know the time you don't know where you are."



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