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From Sundials to Atomic Clocks: Understanding Time and Fluency

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'LCSS6. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 77-600056 National Bureau of Standards Monograph 155 Nat. Bur. Stand. (U.S.), Monogr. 155, 177 pages (Dec. 1977) CODEN: NBSMA6 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402 Stock No. 003-003-01650-1 Price: $4 (Add 25 percent additional for other than U.S. mailing). ! FOREWORD Time and its measurement is, simultaneously, very familiar and very mysterious. I suspect we all believe that the readings of our clocks and watches are somehow related to the sun's position. However, as science and technology developed, this relationship has come to be determined by a very complex system involving—just to name a few—astronomers, physicists, electronic engineers, and statisticians. And because time is both actively and precisely coordinated among all of the technologically advanced nations of the world, international organizations are also involved. The standard time-of-day radio broadcasts of all countries are controlled to at least 1/1000 of a second of each other; most time services, in fact, are controlled within a very few millionths of a second The National Bureau of Standards (NBS) mounts a major effort in developing and maintaining standards for time and frequency. This effort tends to be highly sophisticated and perhaps even esoteric at times. Of course, most of the publications generated appear in technical journals aimed at specialized, technically sophisticated audiences. I have long been convinced, however, that it is very important to provide a descriptive book, addressed to a much wider audience, on the subj ect of time. There are many reasons for this, and I will give two. First, it is—very simply—a fascinating subject. Again, we often have occasion to explain the NBS time program to interested people who do not have a technical background, and such a book would be an efficient and—hopefully—interesting means of informing them. Finally, this book realizes a long-standing personal desire to see a factual and yet understandable book on the subject of time. James A. Barnes May 6, 1977 Preparation of this document was supported in part by the 1842Dd Electronic Engineering Group, C^/DCS Division, Air Force Communications Service. iii I Contents I. THE RIDDLE OF TIME 1. The Riddle of Time 3 The Nature of Time/What Is Time?/Date, Time Interval, and Synchronization/Ancient Clock Watchers/ Clocks in Nature/Keeping Track of the Sun and Moon/Thinking Big and Thinking Small—An Aside on Numbers 2. Everything Swings 11 Getting Time from Frequency/What Is a Clock ?/The Earth-Sun Clock/Meter-Sticks to Measure Time/What Is a Standard ?/How Time Tells Us Where in the World We Are/ Building a Clock that Wouldn't Get Seasick II. MAN-MADE CLOCKS AND WATCHES 3. Early Man-IVIade Clocl<s 25 Sand and Water Clocks/Mechanical Clocks/The Pendulum Clock/The Balance-Wheel Clock/ Further Refinements/The Search for Even Better Clocks 4. "Q" Is for Quality 31 The Resonance Curve/The Resonance Curve and Decay Time/Accuracy, Stability, and Q/High Q and Accuracy/High Q and Stability/Waiting to Find the Time/Pushing Q to the Limit/More about Q—An Aside 5. Building Even Better Cloclcs 39 The Quartz Clock/ Atomic Clocks/The Ammonia Resonator/The Cesium Resonator/One Second in 370,000 Years/Atomic Definition of the Second/The Rubidium Resonator/The Hydrogen Maser/Can We Always Build a Better Clock? 6. The "Correct Time" for the Man in the Street 49 Modern Mechanical Watches/Electric and Electronic Watches/The Quartz-Crystal Watch/ How Much Does "The Time" Cost? III. FINDING AND KEEPING THE TIME 7. Time Scales 59 The Calendar/The Solar Day/The Stellar or Sidereal Day/Earth Rotation/The Continu- ing Search for More Uniform Time: Ephemeris Time/How Long Is a Second ?/"Rubber" Seconds/The New UTC System and the Leap Second/The Length of the Year/The Keep- ers of Time/U. S. Timekeepers/The Bureau International de I'Heure 8. The Clock behind the Clock 71 Flying Clocks/Time on a Radio Beam/Accuracy/Coverage/Reliability/Other Considera- tions/Other Radio Schemes 9. The Time Signal on Its Way 79 Choosing a Frequency/Very Low Frequencies/Low Frequencies/Medium Frequencies/ High Frequencies/Very High Frequencies/Frequencies above 300 MHz/Noise—Addita- tive and Multiplicative/Three Kinds of Time Signals IV THE USES OF TIME 10. standard Time 89 Standard Time Zones and Daylight-Saving Time/Time as a Standard/Is a Second Really a Second ?/Who Cares about the Time? 11. Time, The Great Organizer 99 Electric Power/Modern Communication Systems/Transportation/Navigation by Radio Beacons/Navigation by Satellite/Some Common and Some Far-out Uses of Time and Fre- quency Technology V TIME, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY 12. Time and l\/lathematics 113 Taking Apart and Putting Together/Slicing up the Past and the Future—Calculus/Con- ditions and Rules/Getting at the Truth with Differential Calculus/Newton's Law of Gravi- tation/What's Inside the Differentiating Machine?—An Aside 13. Time and Physics 123 Time is Relative/Time Has Direction/Time Measurement Is Limited/Atomic and Gravita- tional Clocks/The Struggle to Preserve Symmetry/The Direction of Time and Time Sym- metries—An Aside 14. Time and Astronomy 135 Measuring the Age of the Universe/The Expanding Universe/Time Equals Distance/Big Bang or Steady State ?/Stellar Clocks/White Dwarfs/Neutron Stars/Black Holes/Time Comes to a Stop/Time, Distance, and Radio Stars 15. Clockwork and Feedbacic 143 Open-Loop Systems/Closed-Loop Systems/The Response Time/System Magnification or Gain/Recognizing the Signal/Fourier's "Tinker Toys"/Finding the Signal/Choosing a Control System 16. Time as Information 151 Three Kinds of Time Information Revisited/Geological Time/Interchanging Time and Location Information/Time as Stored Information/The Quality of Frequency and Time Information 17. The Future of Time 159 Using Time to Increase Space/Time and Frequency Information—Wholesale and Retail/ Time Dissemination/Clocks in the Future/The Atom's Inner Metronome/Time Scales of the Future/The Question of Labeling—A Second is a Second is a Second/Time through the Ages/What Is Time, Really ?/ Particles Faster than Light—An Aside vi PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This is a book for laymen. It offers an introduction to time, timekeeping, and the uses of time informa- tion, especially in the scientific and technical areas. It is impossible to consider time and timekeeping with- out including historical and philosophical aspects of the subject, but we have merely dabbled in these. We hope historians and philosophers will forgive our shallow coverage of their important contributions to man's understanding of time, and that scientists will be forbearing toward our simplified account of scientific thought on time in the interest of presenting a reasonably complete view in a limited number of pages. Time is an essential component in most disciplines of science ranging from astronomy to nuclear physics. It is also a practical necessity in managing our everyday lives, in such obvious ways as getting to work on time, and in countless ways that most persons have never realized, as we shall see. Because of the many associations of time, we have introduced a certain uniformity of language and defi- nition which the specialist will realize is somewhat foreign to his particular field. This compromise seemed necessary in a book directed to the general reader. Today the United States and some parts of the rest of the world are in the process of converting to the metric system of measurement, which we use in this book. We have also used the American definitions of billion and trillion ; thus a billion means 1000 million, and a trillion means 1000 billion. Several sections in this book—the "asides" printed over a light blue background—are included for the reader who wishes to explore a little more fully a particular subject area. These may be safely ignored, how- ever, by the reader who wishes to move on to the next major topic, since understanding the book does not depend upon reading these more "in-depth" sections. This book could not have been written without the help and support of a number of interested persons. James A. Barnes, Chief of the Time and Frequency Division of the Natural Bureau of Standards, first conceived the idea of writing a book of this kind. He has contributed materially to its contents and has steadfastly supported the authors in their writing endeavors. George Kamas, also of the Time and Fre- quency Division, played the role of devil's advocate, and for this reason many muddy passages have been cast out or rewritten. Critical and constructive comments from many others also helped to extend and clarify many of the concepts presented. Among these are Roger E. Beehler, Jo Emery, Helmut Hellwig, Sandra Howe, Howland Fowler, Stephen Jarvis, Robert Mahler, David Russell, and Collier Smith—all mem- bers of the National Bureau of Standards staff. Thanks go also to John Hall and William Klepczynski of the United States Naval Observatory, and Neil Ashby, Professor of Physics at the University of Colorado. Finally, we thank Joanne Dugan, who has diligently and good naturedly prepared the manuscript in the face of a parade of changes and rewrites. DEDICATION The authors dedicate this book to the many who have contributed to man's understanding of the concept of time, and especially to Andrew James Jespersen, father of one of the authors, who—as a railroad man for almost 40 years—understands better than most the need for accurate time, and who contributed sub- stantially to one of the chapters.
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