How an Atomic Clock works and its use in GPS
The way that the atomic clock work amazes me. Let me explain the way the very first one worked. Let’s take an example of a Jello. Tap on the Jello and it wiggles just like the swings of a pendulum. The oscillations of the Jello keeps time. Now Jello isn’t very good for this, but inside an atomic clock we have a trunk of quartz which is of similar shape that if we tap it which we do with a Joule of electricity it will oscillate some 5 Million times per second. It keeps time in 1 second in 90000 years which is fraction of the accuracy needed for an atomic clock. Quartz loses time because it slows down and needs to be nudged to restore its oscillations, that’s where the atomic part of the atomic clock comes into play. We use Caesium atoms to control this nudge very accurately. Every time the Quartz’s ion slows down just a tiniest bit, we give it tap with a Joule exactly at the same time, so essentially its oscillations never decay. The way that the Atomic Clock W...