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The most accurate clocks use atomic vibrations to keep track of time. Clock transition states in atoms are insensitive to temperature and other environmental factors and the oscillation frequency is much higher than any of the other clocks (in microwave frequency regime and higher).
International Atomic Time (abbreviated TAI, from its French name temps atomique international [1]) is a high-precision atomic coordinate time standard based on the notional passage of proper time on Earth's geoid. [2] TAI is a weighted average of the time kept by over 450 atomic clocks in over 80 national laboratories worldwide. [3]
The caesium atomic clock maintained by NIST is accurate to 30 billionths of a second per year. [206] Atomic clocks have employed other elements, such as hydrogen and rubidium vapor, offering greater stability (in the case of hydrogen clocks) and smaller size, lower power consumption, and thus lower cost (in the case of rubidium clocks). [206]
NIST-F1, source of the official time of the United States. NIST-F1 is a cesium fountain clock, a type of atomic clock, in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, Colorado, and serves as the United States' primary time and frequency standard. The clock took fewer than four years to test and build, and was developed ...
Horology is commonly used specifically with reference to the mechanical instruments created to keep time: clocks, watches, clockwork, sundials, hourglasses, clepsydras, timers, time recorders, marine chronometers, and atomic clocks are all examples of instruments used to measure time.
Screenshot of the UTC clock from time.gov during the leap second on 31 December 2016.. A leap second is a one-second adjustment that is occasionally applied to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), to accommodate the difference between precise time (International Atomic Time (TAI), as measured by atomic clocks) and imprecise observed solar time (), which varies due to irregularities and long-term ...
The primary time standard in the U.S. is currently NIST-F1, a laser-cooled Cs fountain, [34] the latest in a series of time and frequency standards, from the ammonia-based atomic clock (1949) to the caesium-based NBS-1 (1952) to NIST-7 (1993).
Quartz clocks and quartz watches are timepieces that use an electronic oscillator regulated by a quartz crystal to keep time. This crystal oscillator creates a signal with very precise frequency, so that quartz clocks and watches are at least an order of magnitude more accurate than mechanical clocks.